THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA

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THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA

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THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA
by
GEORGE W. STOW, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.

Along with a Commentary by
VED from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS


VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS
Aaradhana, DEVERKOVIL 673508 India
www.victoriainstitutions.com
admn@victoriainstitutions.com
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CONTENTS

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Commentary

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COMMENTARY
1. Intro

2. Comparative stance

3. Lowering of the native-English mental stamina

4. What has been missed

5. A most terrific observation

6. How the Bushmen was treated by the native tribes of Africa and by the Boers

7. Serpent worship

8. Irish Link

9. The invisible spirit of Dutch colonial endeavours

10. Islamic demeanour

11. Satanism in feudal languages

12. India overrunning England

13. Slavery in South Asia

14. Native English versus the Boers

15. Bushmen and the Boers

16. Shamanistic spiritual system

17. Bushmen Butchered

18. Bushmen - Refined character

19. Bushmen versus the native African encroachers

20. Effect of language codes

21. BOERS and Hottentots

22. English intervention

23. The entry of various other populations into South Africa

24. African social situation

25. Colonial effect

26. London Missionary Society

27. Miscellaneous

28. Social Engineering

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Intro


I had made some observations on what was in the offing with regard to South Africa, in my ancient book March of the Evil Empires; English versus the feudal languages! The initial drafting of this book had been done in the ending months of 1989. However, the book was rewritten and made into its final form only in 2002.

My information on South Africa was quite of the abysmal level in those days. However, I wrote from my own basic perspectives and information on feudal languages. My posture was simply that if the native South African languages do have the codes of pejorative versus ennobling in them, then the nation would move into a diseased state when the nation gets handed over to the native blacks.

Even though what I had claimed was quite powerful, and more or less plausible, the fact remained that my information on Boers, various South African native tribes, their languages &c. was quite minimal. Even though I was aware that it was the native-English who initially had the upper-hand, it seemed a kind of absurdity that the Boers were handed over the political power.

Even now my information on Afrikaans language is an absolute zero. Since most of my writings are connected to what may be mentioned as language codes, feudal languages, pristine-English, codes of reality &c., it is a grave failing in me that I do not know anything about Afrikaans. Especially when I am embarking on a commentary such as this.

At the moment of this writing, I do not know what the popular language among the Whites in South Africa was, whether it was English or Afrikaans. Why I am harping upon language so much is that it has been my observation that language systems are the most powerful encoding that designs a social system. What pristine-English can design would be entirely different from what Afrikaans, Afrikaans-English mixture, native-African languages &c. can design.

When speaking these things about languages in English, if the reader is a native-English individual, he would not get a head or tail of what is being mentioned. However, the fact remains that the native-Englishman does not know what the emotional and thinking process content is, in feudal languages. The very fact that there is such a thing which can be defined as feudal language is there in existence is not seen mentioned in English much.

I cannot deal with the subject of feudal language here. For it is a very huge theme. However, the interested reader can peruse some of my books in this regard:

1. March of the Evil Empires; English versus the feudal languages!

2. Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages!

3. Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c.

4. An Impressionistic History of the South Asian Subcontinent

The original writing of item no.4 👆 is in a vernacular of South Asia, for the local people there to read. So, there can be no duplicity about what I am writing in English.

5. What is entering? (into England)

I have done very deep studies on a few books, written during the English colonial rule period in South Asia. They include Malabar Manual by William Logan, Travancore State Manual by V Nagam Aiya, Native Life in Travancore by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER, Castes and tribes of Southern India Vol 1 by Edgar Thurston and Omens and Superstitions of Southern India by Edgar Thurston. On the first four of them I have written commentaries.

I have also done a study of Adolf Hilter’s Mein Kampf and written a commentary plus annotation on this book and brought it out in the name: MEIN KAMPF by Adolf Hitler. - A demystification!

I have mentioned this much to mention that I am not new to these kinds of books and writings. However, this is the first book I have touched upon about Africa or, rather to be precise, about South Africa. There might not be much need to mention that I have had certain impressions about the native peoples of Africa and South Africa in a very vague manner. I was aware of various items like Zanzibar, Slave Trade, West African Squadron of the British Royal Navy, Bushmen, cannibals &c. and such other things. However, there was not much of an information on how the native peoples lived.

I did not have the least bit of idea as to what would come out from this book when I started reading it. Now about this book itself, I need to mention this much. I selected this book for my study due to no specific reason. There were a few others. However, somehow this was the book file (PDF) that appeared at that time to be easy to convert into an editable version in MS Word.

The selection of the book was propitious in one sense. It was that this book literally took me straight into the depths of the Native races’ life experiences. However, the defect with this selection was that it did not deal at all with the Boers versus native-English confrontations in South Africa. It was a location which I was keenly interested in. In fact, I wanted to view how the verbal codes of Dutch language and those of pristine English confronted each other.

When I speak about such a linguistic confrontation, the reader might not understand what I am speaking about. I can easily explain that.

If there is a confrontation between a group of Frenchmen and a group of Englishmen, the simple fact is that it is a confrontation between two groups of human beings. Moreover, they are both White-skinned persons. However, there is a wider defining content in each group. One group speaks and thinks in French. The other in English. This is the vital location where the two groups, though both are human beings, differ. The same is the case when a group of Irishmen or Scots or Welsh persons confront with a group of native-English.

A number of native South African / African tribes or races have been mentioned in this book. From a comprehensive perspective, this book is pro-Bushmen. In fact, South Africa is seen belonging to the Bushmen by ancestral claims. All other claims, both White as well as black stands demolished, as per the information given in this book.

As to the veracity of the contents in this book, I did not find any reason to doubt it.

What is described in this book is terrific and if visualised mentally, the various scenes of barbarity that continuously gets enacted and repeated throughout the book, might given a mental shock to the reader and also appear in his or her dreams as some kind of nightmare scenarios. However, it is doubtful if any reader would try to imagine the incidences in his or her mind.

Talking about barbarity, the fact remains that most of the current-day world is still barbarian. In fact, if one were to remove the luxuries that technology had given to mankind in the last 100 years or so, only the few nations connected to native-English speakers and a few other nations would be seen to be above the social standards of barbarianism.

For instance, if English and the technological devices of the modern ages are removed from South Asia, the population would have not much of a difference from many of the semi-barbarian populations in the world. If English is not there in South Asia, then what would remain would be languages which are very carnivorous. That is, languages which would be used by the stronger class or individual to prey upon or impale the weaker group or individual by mere verbal codes.
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Comparative stance


After reading this book, my mind has become loaded with a lot of historical information with regard to mankind and living beings in general and to South Africa in particular. I am not sure as to how I going to use them in this commentary. I need to take a comparative stance. That is to make comparisons with the various incidences and information I have read, with those of South Asia, and with native-English global experiences.

I need to very categorically mention that the native-English, though secluded from very many negative emotional traps and sinister social encodings, are a very foolish and gullible lot in the sense that they are being fooled by the cunning fake affability of the others. They do not have much information on what the world is just beyond the borders of the pristine-English world. They have been led and misled by others on various items to terrific historic traps.

South Africa, the place, is entirely new to me. I have come across a number of population / tribe / races names in this book. See these: The Hottentot tribes, Korana, Bachoana and Basutu tribes, Batlapin, Kaffirs, the Amaxosa, the Abatembu and Amampondo tribes, the Amazulu, Matabli, and Natal tribes, Cochoqua, Chainouqua, Namaqua, Africaander, Berg-Damaras, Ovaherero, Damara, Leghoya, Griqua, Mantatees, Bergenaars, Bakuena &c.

All of them are new to me, and most of them do not connect my mind to any specific imagination of any population. I do not have much clear chronological order in my mind with regard to them.

In a similar manner, a lot of new places names have also come into my notice. Almost all are new to me. Without referring to the text in book, I would find it difficult to connect any of the populations to any of the places.

After having confessed that much, I need to think of what the imagination of the whole book creates in my mind. It is a powerful book, no doubt. A lot of sociological and historical events have been recorded or collected in this book. From this perspective, it is a good book.

There is another perspective also that needs to be mentioned. It is that neither this book nor its author has been able to penetrate into the mindset, emotional triggers, cravings, inhibitions, restrictions, strictures, immunities etc. that are encoded in the languages or communication codes of the native tribes or races. This is actually a very vital point fit for elaboration.

It is like this: I am reasonably good in English, have some reading experience in English Classics, have read a number of Enid Blyton books, have lived at times in an English-only social ambience inside South Asia and I can understand the various communication freedoms and mental stature that English can give. I can understand the huge benefits a native-English population would have derived by merely living inside a pristine-English ambience. Moreover, I do have a reasonable amount of understanding of the mood of a native-English individual, commoner or from the nobility. Beyond that I do have some information on how the native-English are different from their own Celtic language countrymen. I do even have some information on the difference that the English have from the Continental Europeans.

I cannot elaborate on these claims of mine here. However, the interested reader can check certain of my other books.

However, I am not a native-Englishman. I am by heredity and ethnicity from current-day South Asia, even though by antiquity I can be connected to some other geographical location. For, many of the South Asian populations are really from various geographical locations in the world, who by some tragic twist of fate had got entrapped in the South Asian social shackles.

When I read books written by the officials of the erstwhile English rule in South Asia, I find them quite profound. Many of the writers have taken a lot of pain to study their subject matter in great detail. Yet, all of the writings and assertions remain very superficial, from my own perspective. This is just because I understand the language codes of the local populations, in their various complexities or lack of it.

This is one defect that all ancient-time studies done by the native-English have. They have no information on the existence of a different human imagination system, quite different from English. The emotions, imaginations, human relationships designed by mere word-codes, the powerful hierarchies that get build up when certain words are used, the loyalties and commitments that get powerfully laid down, the verbal codes that can be used to place terrific hold on certain others, the emotions of worship and hate different form of words with the same meaning can create &c. are totally unknown to the native-English writers. They can only see the effect of the codes or the working of the social machinery. But they have no information on the various verbal codes that creates the actions or the emotions.

Even though I do not want to pursue the feudal language theme here, I can give a minute illustrative example to show what it is all about.

The Indian army as well as the Pakistani army are actually the continuation of the British-Indian army. So, both of them do retain a lot of conventions, procedures, uniforms, parade systems etc. which they had inherited from the erstwhile English army. The senior army officers who are designated as Commissioned Officers (this term itself is connected to the English Monarch) do try to copy and imitate the English army officer class in demeanour, grooming, table manners, sitting postures etc. During the officer training period they are generally mentioned as the Gentlemen Cadets. Some of the senior Indian army officers do don hats and other paraphernalia which might make the common man in India think that they are on the same level as or even superior to an English army officer. In fact, it might seem quite easy to imagine that the senior Indian army officers are more or less of the same mental standards as an English army officer. A few of them might even speak good quality English.

However, there are acute differences between a senior Indian army officer and an English army officer. The major difference is that the Indian officers are at home in Hindi. They address the subordinate ordinary soldiers in Hindi. They address them as the lower slot You in Hindi, that is, Thoo. The ordinary soldier would address them back with an Aap or Saab. This is, the highest level of You. In the Indian army, the Thoo-Aap ladder-step like hierarchy starts from the top Aap level and reaches down to the lowest Thoo level.

Other words like he, his, him, she, her, hers &c. also change into the corresponding form of the selected You. This slotted version of communication would encompass not only the officers and soldiers, but even their family members, relatives, companions &c.

In the English army, this terrific compressing of human self-esteem does not take place in the military hierarchy. So, even when the Indian senior army officers and the English army officers might seem similar, there is actually a total difference in what they are part of and how their mental encoding works.

To illustrate the extreme power of the verbal codes of South Asia, I will give one more illustration, again from the South-Asian armies.

Recently one of India’s Air force pilots was captured by Pakistan. He had been shot down during a bombing mission inside Pakistan. The people who caught him would have bashed him up to death. However, he was saved by the Pakistani military officers. Moreover, he was literally given a royal treatment by the Pakistani military officers. There can be a number of reasons as to why he was saved. Beyond the generally discussed themes, there can even be the possibility that someone in his family had connection with the pan-national arms dealer network, which has connection with the military brass on both sides. They can very easily put in word to the other side to see that the captured person’s skin is saved.

That all is however irrelevant here. What is of relevance here is the verbal codes that was used in all conversations between the Pakistani Military side and the captured person. The conversations were in English. Why?

It is a very pertinent question. For both sides of the fight are at home in Hindi. Yet they preferred to speak in English.

Whatever might be the answer given, the real fact is that English is used to avoid the feudal language encoding issues that would crop up. The Pakistani military would be compelled to use Thoo (lowest You) and the captive person would be under compulsion to use ‘Aap’ (highest You). When this is done, a lot of other verbal codes in Hindi would divide spontaneously into higher and lower attributes. The captured person would sink into the level of a diminutive personality.

In a way, the Pakistani Military officers protected a counterpart of theirs, from a very necessary personality degrading by simply using English. This point has not been appreciated by the Indian side. Even if it was understood, it was not publicly acknowledged. For, such an admission would have brought into the open various hidden issues, including the fact that Hindi is a very carnivorous language.

If the war had continued, these kinds of mutual support by the officer classes would not have continued. Things would have dropped down to the traditional barbarian communication codes. The captured officers on both sides would be addressed and questioned by the lower-placed ordinary soldiers at the Thoo (lowest you) level.

Even a very friendly interaction by the ordinary soldiers with the captive officer from the other side would have been a terribly traumatic experience for the captive officer. For, they, in a pose of extreme friendliness, would have addressed the captive officer by his mere name, Thoo &c. and used the USS (lowest he/him) to refer to him.

The explosive level of personality degradation that would come about from this friendly pose cannot be understood by a native-English person. In fact, when there was the shooting of an engineer from South Asia in the US by a person named Adam Purinton, I did have a conversation with the South Asian side about the verbal code issue. Even though that side was quite abusive and cantankerous, it did ultimately emerge that the dead engineer’s side did use the explosive verbal codes on Adam Purinton. These are things that are quite easily understood in South Asia. And these mental explosions can be very easily demonstrated. That is, the homicidal mania that gets ignited can be demonstrated for any kind of research into this effect. However, the Adam Purinton’s legal defence side had no inkling at all of all these things.


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Lowering of the native-English mental stamina


I mentioned so much to mention that native-English colonial officials and writers never did get to understand the exact content of barbarianism deeply encoded inside the barbarian and semi-barbarian areas which they got to administer and improve.

The modern English citizen in England is not the original native-English citizens of yore. The modern specimen is a corrupted and low grade individual, when compared to the original native-English individuals. This lowliness comes from having achieved a level of equality with the feudal language speaking persons who have barged into England. Many of these persons, who have swarmed in, are mostly the children of corrupt-to-the-core officials of other nations. Others can be the lowly-placed persons’ children. Feudal languages actually give a very satanic power to the lowly placed persons, if they are allowed to grow up and address the social seniors as equals. This danger also, England does not understand.

Equality with the feudal language individuals is an equality with an entity that can oscillate another being between stinking dirt and fragrant gold. Those persons can literally clasp another person and get him attached to the stinking dirt layer of human existence or to the golden layers. These are things that cannot be made understood in English. The easiest way to demonstrate this is to simply show the extreme urge of these individuals to get out of their own nations and to sink their teeth into the vital interiors of native-English nations.

Even a simple question in English as, Where are you going? can be asked using various and varying verbal codes in feudal languages. These shifting or changing of verbal codes can literally swing a person across different social levels, or display various kinds of attachments to other persons. Each of these shifts can powerfully place the person in various kinds of social or positional shackles. Or they can place him in positions of power over others. Each of these positions can very directly affect his own equation with many other individuals including his own subordinates, superiors, wife, children etc. His own position can affect his children, wife, parents and even his superiors and subordinates, in their own spheres of activity and socialising.

All these terrific information get hidden in English. And this is the great tragedy that is entering into native-English nations, when multiculture is being given the go-ahead. No one over there seems to understand that they have no information on the exact amplitude and ambit of the term ‘multiculture’. Or why exactly all these multiculture individuals are running out of their own cultural lands, and would go suicidal or homicidal if forced to relocate back to their homeland.

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What has been missed


This book, THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA written by GEORGE W. STOW, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. does suffer from this defect. That is, the writer of this book has written this book containing a huge content of details. However, everything does sort of skim over the surface. The hidden codes and their machine-work have been totally missed. Or rather, there is not even a thought that such hidden things, non-tangible to a native-English mind, would be there in existence.

A population group is studied. Their strange or bizarre actions or social conventions are detailed. However, there is no information on why the persons behave in such a strange manner. This is an insight that I did have when I was reading the books written by the officials of the erstwhile English East India Company or by the British officials of British-India. They detail the social system, conventions, inhibitions, strictures, repulsions &c. Beyond that they have no more information of the social machinery. However, when I read them, in many cases, I can very easily visualise the verbal codes that acted upon the persons to create the social effect.

That much is the defect. However, as mentioned earlier, it is not a rare defect in native-English writers.

Speaking about what the book contains, it may be admitted that it does contain a lot of information, for a person who knows what to look for. This again is a very profound statement. It is like a native-Englishman coming to South Asia and finding everyone quite friendly, welcoming and affectionate. However, if the person knows something about the sinister sides of feudal languages, then he or she can know what to look for. A very friendly and affable outward demeanour is a powerful way to trap or allure a wary or unwary antagonist or someone they want to subdue. In feudal languages, there are actually two extremely opposite poses possible.

In this book, one or two such incidences have been mentioned wherein these kinds of mentalities are exhibited.

It may be mentioned here that the native-English colonial behaviour was exemplary and totally opposite to that of the Continental Europeans. However that cannot be expected anymore, because the native-English are now in close contact with the feudal language speakers and many of them are being taught by feudal language teachers. I hope to write about this later in this book. However, interested persons can read my book: The tragic consequences of teaching Hindi in Australia!

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A most terrific observation


There are a number of observations that I have made from the contents of this book. I need to go through them in a systematic manner, as much as possible.

The most terrific observation is that human beings are actually another kind of animals. And also that human beings might not actually be one single kind of animals, but a variety of animals, who anatomically might seem quite close to each other. The wider point for elaboration might be that most of the peoples of the world currently seem to be alike only due to the influence of English.

If there was no English, then it is quite possible that many human races would find it quite difficult to arrive at a similarity in thoughts and conventions, that might give a feel that they are all actually of the same type of living beings. This is a very tall claim and the reader might not be quite amused by this. However, I do not intend to pursue this line of thoughts here. If after reading the full commentary, the reader gets to acknowledge the veracity of this claim, well and good. Otherwise also, it does not matter. May be I should mention that animals also have many thoughts and emotions quite similar to that of mankind.

I need to commence from the Bushmen. Actually when I read about them, I did find that they had an attribute which I had mentioned in my earlier writing in my book ‘Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages’. It about what would come about when human beings speak animal languages. Since most the animals do not seem to have a verbal communication as understood as with audible sounds, it is simply that they communicate with each other using other physical and mental features they have or might have.

If human beings can develop the physical capabilities of dogs, carnivorous animals, snakes, fishes etc. what would be the change seen in them? Would they have superior attributes? Well, it is possible that in such an eventuality, the individual might seem to possess animal features. And when this is combined with human capacities of speech, writing, computer & Smartphone use, vehicle driving, speaking standing on a podium, videography etc., the individual would indeed be quite a superior individual or a superman.

However, the exact issue is that the individual will have animal features. If these features are of a living being that is considered to be dangerous, then that individual can very well be seen as a dangerous being.

This might be the exact situation in which the Bushmen might have arrived or lived in. They literally had capabilities which were way beyond that of an ordinary human being. However, they lived in the wild in close proximity with the wild animals. In the various locations of areas which later became South Africa, and beyond, they occupied the place in a manner in which their presence was not detected or acknowledged by the human being populations that entered the location or occupied it.

QUOTE 1:
The Hottentots and Bushmen had two remarkable faculties in common : that of quickness of sight and power of endurance in withstanding the cravings of hunger. It was remarked that they could distinguish objects scarcely visible to other men. This faculty was well illustrated in their expertness in watching the flight of bees through the air, and by this means discovering their nest, although at a considerable distance ; the certainty also with which they followed the spoor or trail of animals through a difficult tract of country was another illustration of the same fact, they being frequently able to follow the pursuit at a full run, tiring out horse and rider who accompanied them.


QUOTE 2:
Other tribal traditions, again, state that when their forefathers migrated to the south, they found the land without inhabitants, and that only the wild game and the Bushmen were living in it, evidently classing the Bushmen and the game in the same category as wild animals.


QUOTE 3:
In such a country, and endowed with the activity which it is known they possessed, it is not at all likely that the Bushmen would be the starving miserable people which some have delighted to depict them, before the stronger races invaded their hunting-grounds. Their powers of vision were extraordinary. They were able not only to descry, but to describe, objects at a distance, which were almost invisible to Europeans except with the aid of a telescope.


QUOTE 4:
The country was then stated to be uninhabited, that is, merely in the occupation of wild game and tribes of the Bushman race, whose sole means of subsistence was the chase. Hence their presence was always ignored, although there is overwhelming evidence that the country was then, and for a long period afterwards, thickly populated by them.


QUOTE 5:
They run like a horse, and in broken rocky ground no horse has a chance of overtaking them. They bound along, and when once among the rocks are like the klipspringers or baboons ; they spring from rock to rock without fear of falling.

He believes that to become an expert naturalist one ought to turn Bushman and conquer the language, when one would learn more about the natural history of many things than from books and years of study and experiment.


The above statement has a limited bit of merit. However, it cannot go beyond that. For, if the living being who has been living in the natural ambience as much as a wild animal can acquire a great expertise and information on Nature and such things, well then, animals would be great Naturalists.

Actually what could create an individual with super information across the living being fences is a combination of certain very specific attributes. I cannot divulge more about this here.

It is seen mentioned all along the writing that the Bushmen were not seen as human beings, but some kind of semi-humans. One of their special features that led to their total destruction was their unique capability to create poisoned arrows. Even though this was a very wonderful item of defence and offence for them, it more or less got them identified with the poisonous beings that live in the borrows.

Even if the arrow they send did not make much of a physical damage in a person, the poison would work and the person would die. This was so terrific an experience that they became a terror. However, the fact that they were initially not at all with any kind of hostile aims can be understood by the way they treated the others who came to occupy their traditional lands. Even the term ‘their traditional lands’ becomes an issue. For, it was like saying that the land traditionally belonged to the poisonous beings in the locality.

They had also a most useful ally and assistant in carrying out this work in the honey-bird — the " Bee-cuckoo " — (Cuculus indicator), of Sparrman, and called " honing wijzer," the honey- guide, by the Hottentots and Dutch. As soon as a Bushman heard its well-known and alluring cry of " cherr, cherr, cherr," he was immediately on the alert, as he knew by experience that the bird was desirous of attracting attention. Finding that it had been successful in doing this, it flew a short distance in front, repeating the cry.

As the Bushman followed, it again went a little farther, slowly and by degrees towards the quarter where the swarm of bees had taken up their abode, all the while repeating its cry of " cherr, cherr." The Bushman answered it now and then with a low gentle whistle, to let the bird know that its call was attended to. Approaching the bees' nest, it flew shorter distances, and repeated its note with greater earnestness. On arriving at the cleft of the rock, the hollow tree, or cavity in the ground, it hovered over the spot for a few seconds, and then perched in silence on some neighbouring tree or bush, awaiting results. A small piece of comb containing young bees was generally left on the ground as a reward to the bird for its information. Bushmen searching for honey say that the bee-hunter must not be too generous at first, but merely give enough to stimulate the bird's appetite, when the shrewd little thing will show a second hive if there be another in the neighbourhood.


The above might be a very clear illustration of the fact that animals are also individuals. It is only a matter of being able to communicate with them. Bushmen could comprehend a bit of the bird communication towards them. Even though they might have had the capability to decode or understand the communication between or among the birds.

QUOTE 1:
When we come to study the nature of some of their dances, their funeral rites, and some of their leading myths, we find that they possessed a traditionary belief that at some remote period the connexion between man and the lower animals was much closer and far more intimate than at present,...


QUOTE 2:
" That they are," continues the doctor, " to some extent like baboons is true, just as these are in some points frightfully human.”


The above words are quite evocative of the fact that they were very close to the animals, in that they could sort of read or sense their intentions, track them, sort of communicative with some of them, and could even live in some kind of symbiotic relationship with a few of them. In fact, they were human beings who had the capability to exist as a sort of link between the animal world and that of the human world. After all, animals are apart from human beings only because of the communication problem. In fact, even in South Asia, many human populations had been treated or defined or considered as half animal or semi-human.

These were the lower caste populations such as the Pulaya, Pariah and such others. However, with the advent of the English rule in the subcontinent, all of them were liberated from their semi-human state. However, it was an act for which the higher castes of the location still cannot forgive the English. In fact, there is one rascal member of these higher caste populations who has made a mark on the national psyche by demanding that Britain should pay adequate compensation for what it had done in the Subcontinent.

If the English rule had taken the effort to bring in communication ability in some of the shackled animals of the subcontinent, such as the elephant etc. they too would have entered into close proximity with the human races.

when, as they believed, men and animals consorted on more equal terms than they themselves, and used a kindred speech understood by all!


One cannot say if these kinds of talk are insane talk. For, it is possible that some thousands of years back the ancestors of the Bushmen might have had better living standards. How they came to be entrapped in a forest region, and all such things would have very complicated history. The state of the animals also might have been different in a social system where in technical skills were different. In fact, in days to come when software technology improves to such a level that it is possible to communicate with many kinds of animals, those animal stature will change. Many may even enter into the capability of using sophisticated gadgetry.


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c6 #
How the Bushmen was treated by the native tribes of Africa and by the Boers

QUOTE: These unhappy fugitives at last became so terrified at the sight of any human being that there were portions of the country where they concealed themselves so effectually that a traveller might pass through its length and breadth without seeing a single soul, or even, if he were not aware of the fact, suspecting that it was inhabited.
END OF QUOTE

In this book, the Bushmen are mentioned as the entity which has been wronged by the others. Here the others are not the Boers alone, but almost all the native populations of Africa who came to occupy the traditional lands of the Bushmen. Every one of them has been quite wicked in the way their dealt with the Bushmen. In fact, they were treated in the same manner as gathering of poisonous snakes in a locality near to human habitation.

QUOTE 1: The Bushmen of Southern Africa have been described by their enemies, not only as being " the lowest of the low," but as the most treacherous, vindictive, and untameable savages on the face of the earth : a race void of all generous impulses, and little removed from the wild beasts with which they associated, one only fitted to be exterminated like noxious vermin, as a blot upon nature, upon whom kindness and forbearance were equally misplaced and thrown away.

QUOTE 2: On the one hand the Basutus slew them without mercy, whenever any of the marauders fell into their hands. The Baphuti chief Morosi, who was himself a half caste by his mother's side, destroyed the men of entire clans in order that he and his people might possess the women and girls, and only a few years before his death he made a grand final raid upon their remaining strongholds, when some hundreds of them perished, all the surviving females were captured, and the remnant of the unhappy fugitives was forcibly amalgamated into his tribe.

QUOTE 3: The massacre of many hundreds of these miserable creatures, and the carrying away of their children into servitude, seemed to be considered by him and his companions as perfectly lawful, just, and necessary, and as meritorious service done to the public, of which they had no more cause to be ashamed than a brave soldier of having distinguished himself against the enemies of his country

QUOTE 4: A war of extermination was commenced against them by the Koranas. Many of the Bushmen, he said, were shot

QUOTE 5: when closely pursued they would take refuge in dens and caves, in which their enemies have sometimes smothered scores to death, blocking up the entrance with brushwood, and setting it on fire.

QUOTE 6: The government apparently, without any further examination, acceded to the strong representations, and recklessly issued orders which proved the death-warrant of several hundred unhappy wretches, many of whom must have been perfectly innocent of the crime so sweepingly ascribed to them.

QUOTE 7: In this report it is stated that the Griquas have been accused, and with much probability of truth, of having whilst in a savage state treated the Bushmen with barbarity, and expelled them from the greater part of their country.

QUOTE 8: " These coverts enable the Bushmen to lurk here, in spite of all the efforts of the Griquas to root them out. They are a great annoyance to the latter, as well as to the other pastoral tribes in their vicinity, and they are consequently pursued by them, equally as by the Boers, with the utmost animosity."

QUOTE 9: that the Bastaards perpetrated the most horrid cruelties upon his nation, that when they had overpowered a Bushman kraal they would make a large fire and throw in all the children and lambs and kids they could not take away with them, and if they could by any chance lay hands on a grown-up Bushman they would cut his throat ;

QUOTE 10: " A party of Bushmen who had taken refuge in a cave refused to surrender ; they were destroyed," says Mr. Backhouse, " by setting on fire fuel collected at the cave's mouth ! "

QUOTE 11: One was not prepared to meet with such a display of genuine feeling as this among people who have been looked upon and treated as such untamably vicious animals as this doomed race are said to be.

QUOTE 12: In the same locality two or three villages of Bachoana Bushmen were found, "a people greatly despised by all the surrounding tribes."

QUOTE 13: When the Batlapin attack a Bushman kraal to revenge robberies of cattle, they kill without distinction men, women, and children ; women, they say, to prevent them breeding more thieves, and children to prevent them from becoming like their parents !
END OF QUOTEs

The Boers were also quite terrible towards the Bushmen. In fact, they treated them like snakes and killed them remorselessly.

Here it might be correct to delve upon the emerging White race versus other races issue. Historically as well as actually the native-English were different from most other white populations. In fact, they were different from almost all other human populations. The reason for this can be traced into the verbal codes inside pristine-English.

However, there is this information that might be needed to be mentioned here. The Boers and the native populations of Africa saw the Bushmen as some kind of poisonous beings. There are hints in this book that the native-English side did have a more benign attitude to them. Since I have not yet read about the later years, I cannot say anything more here with any level of certitude.



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c7 #
Serpent worship


However, British-India did have a similar issue. However, this was with regard to real poisonous snakes. There were many locations inside the subcontinent wherein serpents were worshipped as divinities, propitiation of which could give benevolent results. I do not want to give any feeling that I find these kinds of attitude foolish. For, one can mention anything with certainty only if one is actually aware of such things as the Codes of reality, and the software codes of life. Interested readers are requested to read my book: Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c.

In Travancore kingdom in the southern most end of the South Asian subcontinent, serpents were worshipped. Usually it is the cobra which is worshipped, even though the term Naga might or might not be the divine serpent. In many medium level higher caste households, a plot of land is kept apart for their worship. In some houses, cobra families used to live.

REV. SAMUEL MATEER mentions them as quite dangerous, even though he says thus also:

Quote: In parts of the country where these dangerous reptiles are regarded with most veneration, it is possible that the danger to human life arising from the great abundance of snakes is slightly diminished by the comparative tameness of the creatures, though of course this would not lessen the risk from inadvertently treading on them in the dark, or turning over them in sleep, and thus forcing them to bite. Serpents, happily, do not chase men, or seek to attack them, but rather try to escape; they only bite when trodden upon or driven to bay. End of Quote

In many property documents of Travancore, residential rights of the cobra family residing inside the house were given written down in very clear and unambiguous words.

Yet, the British officials in the next door British official had the perspective that all poisonous snakes in general were dangerous to the human beings. They took expedient steps to exterminate them.

See these words of REV. SAMUEL MATEER in NATIVE LIFE IN TRAVANCORE:

Quote: The contrast between British India and Travancore as regards the offer of rewards for the destruction of venomous serpents is very marked, and is often referred to by those who take an interest in the subject.

In a little corner of the territory, Tangacherry, which belongs to the British, two annas are paid per head; and in the Cantonment of Quilon, considerate British officers frequently offer rewards and take a great interest in the protection of the lives of their people; while in Travancore nothing of this kind is ever done. The missionaries endeavour to help in a good cause by offering small rewards, but, from the scanty means at their disposal, their efforts are scarcely worth mentioning in view of the importance of the whole subject. End of Quote

It may be mentioned in passing that the native populations of Africa and the Boers had the same kind of policy, which the British-Indian government had towards the serpents, towards the Bushmen.


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c8 #
Irish Link


Great Britain, which was generally associated with England, was not England alone. It consisted of Celtic language speakers also. Celtic languages might have very erroneous social and communication codes. Maybe they are feudal languages. Since I do not know these languages, I can only speak in a postulating manner.

I cannot mention the complete reasons that I have had for assuming that the languages do have terrific communication negativities. However, I may quote here the words of Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet on the Irish famine:

"The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the (Irish) people".


Sir Charles Trevelyan had worked as the Governor of Madras Presidency during the English rule period in South Asia. He is reputed to have stood for the emancipation of the slave populations in the Travancore kingdom. Travancore kingdom was an independent kingdom just outside British-India, at the southernmost end of the subcontinent.

There is this other description about the Irish written by a contemporary native author of South Asia. I do not know how he came to have so much in-depth information on the inner social codes of the Irish hinterland. However, in those days, there were many learned natives of the subcontinent who were on very intimate terms with the English individuals.

Quote from Malabar and its folks by: T. K. Gopal Panikkar with an introduction by the REV. F. W. KELLETT, M. A, (of the Madras Christian College)

Ireland and Irish history present similar and not less striking points of resemblance to Malabar and its history. Ireland is essentially a priest-ridden country. Its people, the great bulk of them, are immersed in the darkest depths of ignorance and superstition. With the exception of the Protestant county of Ulster, Ireland is a Roman Catholic country dominated by Roman Catholic priests who hold in their hands the keys of all social and political powers.

It is, said that even parliamentary elections are surreptitiously controlled by the mystic influence which they wield over the souls of a people given over to the worst forms of superstition; and this was put forward as one of the main grounds against the late Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule Schemes during their progress through Parliament. The superstitious Irish are terrorised into obedience to the will of these priests, who actually stand at the gates of the unlettered and slavish electors calling down the wrath of Heaven upon those who dared to disobey their superhuman mandates. Thus even Irish Politics are under the control of these Roman Catholic priests. Such is the power which the priestly classes wield over the minds and deeds of the Irish people.

The Irish Land Question is another instance of history repeating itself in an alien clime. The land in Ireland is owned by large proprietors who tease and oppress their tenants to the uttermost. Evictions are sadly too numerous ; and the lamentations of the poor Grubstreet author in the Deserted Village about a century and a quarter ago, really though not ostensibly directed against Irish landlordism, are too true even in our own day. Hack-renting has been one of the main features of the Irish Land Question.

The Irish tenants have all along been a down-trodden class and the problem of the Irish land has always remained a knotty and intricate one baffling the political skill of England’s greatest statesmen. All the various Land Acts passed from time to time for the amelioration of the condition of the landholding classes in the country have proved of little or no avail; and a workable and satisfactory scheme yet remains to be devised. The Irish tenant is often fleeced to more than the annual yield of the land in the shape of rent.

Suffice it to say, that the Irish tenants are under the oppressive control of their landlords.

As an inevitable consequence of the atrocities to which the Irish landholders are subjected at the hands of the landed aristocracy we see repeated instances of plebeian uprisings in vindication of humanity and justice. The Irish are a bold and reckless class to whose unquenchable thirst of revenge are due the various outbreaks that have from time to time tarnished the pages of their national history.

Precious lives have often been sacrificed at the sacred altar of social and political wrongs. People have been locked up within the prison walls for breaches of the peace; and the country has had to be constantly brought into subjection by the Coercion Acts which Parliament had to enforce against these dangerous ebullitions of fanaticism. These Coercion Acts, though aimed at in the direction of Order and Reform, have always remained, in the estimation of many a politician, a standing blot upon the fair fame and prestige of Britain’s sway over Ireland. In all these various outbreaks the Land Question has figured prominently as one of the essential and pre-disposing causes.

In these aspects of its social life, Malabar stands level with the “tortured” land of Erin. With regard to the sacerdotal supremacy detailed above it may be surmised that Malabar is equally a priest-ridden country even from its origin. The traditional history of the land is put forward justification of the plea that it belongs in exclusive monopoly

END OF QUOTE.

It is my observation that the Irish people, had they not been connected to the native-English and had been in close proximity to South Asia, would have had a social resemblance to some of the erstwhile social systems of South Asia. However, as of now, they do not have this look or feel about them. It may be pointed out here that neither do the England-domiciled natives of South Asia have much of a South-Asian demeanour.

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c9 #
The invisible spirit of Dutch colonial endeavours


The Dutch colonial endeavours globally would have been quite different from that of the English colonial enterprise in spirit and content. Moreover, I think Boers might have had enough and more of Germanic elements.

QUOTE 1: He says that when at the Zwartkops, he was overtaken by a Boer, an old German named Kock, who was on his way to this portion of Bushmanland, and who was well acquainted with the country and the manners of the natives.

QUOTE 2: During this early period the formidable character of the Koranas was augmented by the accession to their ranks of a powerful ally in the person of a fugitive or outlaw from the Cape Colony named Jan Bloem, variously described as a German and a fugitive Dutchman
END OF QUOTEs

See this QUOTE from Wikipedia:
The Maritz Rebellion occurred in 1914 at the start of World War I, in which men who supported the re-creation of the old Boer republics rose up against the government of the Union of South Africa because they did not want to side with the British against Germany so soon after a long bloody war with the British.

Many Boers had German ancestry and many members of the government were themselves former Boer military leaders who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War. END OF QUOTE

It is my gut feeling that the German language is slightly or even more feudal in its coding. I have mentioned this feeling in my ancient book: March of the Evil Empires: English versus the feudal languages.

I sort of got a lot of confirmatory signals from Adolf Hilter’s great book of Anglophila, Mein Kampf. In this book he has written a lot of ingenious disparagements about German social, military and political establishments, in between radiating a lot of hints that the German communication system is riddled with feudal language codes. Please check my book: MEIN KAMPF by Adolf Hitler - A demystification!

I also remember a few very interesting rejoinders that came upon my posts in a GB forum pages, way back in the 2004 - 05 period: I have quoted these lines in my book: My online writings 2004-07.

Rich (European Union)
QUOTE 1
I would say the Dutch are allot more allike to us than the Germans, having lived and travelled extensively through both countries. I speak both german and english, and I find it interesting that when I speak german in Holland I am ussually met with a certain amount of hostillity. The moment I start speaking english, smiles appear, and I instantly feel more accepted. Interesting how much difference a language makes. End of Quote

Rich(European Union)
QUOTE 2
The ideas you are putting forward are quite interesting. I would like to know how you came to the conclusions you did.

Although I don’t know allot about them, I have always been interested in the orrigins of language. I find it interesting that what you infered is so accurate in real terms.

Germans (and this is a very general statement) are still a fairly insular poeple as far as I can tell. Where ever I visit I find German society based very heavily on connections. The idea is you’ll do fine if you know the local mayor, policeman and teacher. Not much thought is given to what goes on in the next Kreis (county) let allone in the country as a whole.

This has probably got something to do with the fact that the Germans have been a group of fairly insular tribes, or dukedoms far longer than they have been a nation. The issue of nationallity is very low key. There is also a more relaxed attitude to obaying laws, and a general feeling that there is no point in voicing oppinions on a national scale, since no one ever listens anyway.
END OF QUOTE

Cricket
QUOTE 3
I think Ved has a point. I am not sure how I know that he may be correct, but I feel it.
END OF QUOTE

It may be mentioned that it is not possible to convey what I am saying to a native-English individual. Moreover, there is always the issue of misinterpreting my intentions by persons who have an innate competitive attitude to English. See this.

Welshman (Feudal Languages)
QUOTE 4
If you have no ‘real’ knowledge of language, how can you possibly dream up such a strange, unconnected theory of the origin and import of language? Unless it’s sole purpose is to try and justify a strange idea of racial superiority, such as was attepted by the nazi regime of Hitler prior to his losing the European war.
END OF QUOTE

When I speak about a certain quality of certain languages, it is akin to mentioning similar things about various software. Some of the features of a software might be good and some bad, in certain contexts. For instance, for a feudal language social system to function retaining the various oppressive and ennobling hierarchies, English is a misfit. In fact, English would act as a sort of virus in this set up.

At the same time, in a planar social system, feudal languages would acts as a virus.

There is no contention that one is better than the other, or worse. Quality basically depends upon what it is used for. Creating a highly regimented social set or a liberal one.

Why I wrote about these things is to convey the idea that the native-English do not understand much about the realities of the world. There is the issue of whether the native-English are superior or not. If the verbal codes are examined in detail, it would be seen that actually the English languages do not have any codes of human superiority. At the same time, if the codes inside feudal languages are checked, it would be seen that there are very specific codes that define and designate extreme superiority to certain individual and it exact opposite to others.

This absence of these superiority codes is what actually places the English speaking races superior to the others. Almost all their seeming superior attributes can be attributed to this lack of Superiority versus Pejorative codes inside pristine-English. I cannot go more into these things here, for this book is a commentary on another book connected to South Africa.

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c10 #
Islamic demeanour


Look that current-day understanding of Islam in native-English nations. It is seen as a terrible religion, judging from the behaviour of the Muslims. Many years ago, when I received a rare opportunity to read about Prophet Muhammad, I was impressed by the fact that he did not seem to be like the Muslims as seen all around me, at all. In fact, a very curious thought came into my mind that he had the attributes of a native-Englishman.

I do not want to go into what this attribute of his was that made him seem like an Englishman. However, whatever it was, it was an attribute that none of the Muslims in India or Pakistan or any other feudal language nations did seem to have. From this perspective, none of the so-called Muslims who speak and think in feudal languages are actually Islam.

But then, when Islam spread among the feudal language speaking populations, it did do a lot of good among them. For, basically feudal language speaking populations are carnivorous kind of populations. Islam did bring in a particular kind of brotherhood among the people in the barbarian and semi-barbarian social systems. However, the brotherhood was created among these mutually back-stabbing populations.

So whatever unity that Islam brought in was a unity among feudal language speaking populations. It is this unity and capacity for united action among feudal language speaking populations that has made Islam a very dangerous entity. Not Islam the religion, per se.

At the same time, the non-Islam feudal language speaking populations are also quite dangerous for native-English social systems. But then, they cannot present the same kind of unity and a common front that their Islamic counterparts can.

These are all quite complicated themes, about which most academic studies have not much information on.

However, when I first noticed the above-mentioned attribute about Prophet Muhammad, I was a bit perplexed and mystified. It was that there was no tangible supporting evidence that I could find on what I seemed to have noticed. However, around 15 years later when I was doing a study on a very big book titled Malabar Manual, written by William Logan, I came upon a very curious statement inside it.

This book is an official manual of the erstwhile Malabar District of the erstwhile Madras Presidency of the English rule period in South Asia. As to William Logan, he was a British citizen and the district administrator of Malabar district. There is a very specific reason why I mentioned the words ‘British citizen’. He was of Scottish ethnicity. So, though a Briton, he was not a native-Englishman.

However see what he has written:

QUOTE: Genuine Arabs, of whom many families of pure blood are settled on the coast, .............. have a great regard for the truth, and in their finer feelings they approach nearer to the standard of English gentlemen than any other class of persons in Malabar. END OF QUOTE

There is actually more than one quite remarkable item in the above quote. One is that William Logan, a Scottish individual is acknowledging the presence of some kind of higher refinement in the native-English. Second, he perceives the same of kind of higher refinement in the Genuine Arabs who are Muslims as well as settlers from Arabia on the Malabar coast. He mentions the similarity.

At this point, I did have to check up on Arabic. On enquiry, I received the information that pristine Arabic is not feudal in its verbal coding. However, there can be complicated issues inside the social system, which has been in existence in very close proximity with the feudal language populations for many centuries.

Naturally verbal codes and very many social moods and emotions develop to contain many kinds of unsavoury social equations which this close association can bring in. I cannot say much more about Arabic or the Arabians. However, I have been informed that the Arabs higher classes in the Middle East do keep a very non-tangible detachment from the feudal language speaking Muslim populations, who enter their nations as workers.

In fact, I do know that when the Arabian Muslims came in close social proximity with the social systems in Malabar, they did insist that their own side should be protected from the assaults that common words in the Malabari and Malayalam languages could heap upon them. These are minute bits of information, about which the native-English side would not know anything.

I remember another curious bit of information about South Asia, found in the Native Life of Travancore, written by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER, F.L.S.: QUOTE: that “where the severe Mussulman Government most prevailed, the condition of the slave was the easiest; while his condition is the most abject in those countries where the ancient institutions of the Hindus have been least disturbed, END of QUOTE

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c11 #
Satanism in feudal languages


There are minute information behind these kinds of quotes which get lost in the general off-hand manner of giving sweeping statements and definitions about human populations which speak feudal languages.

I need to take up one of the quotes I have mentioned earlier:

Rich (European Union)
QUOTE
I would say the Dutch are allot more allike to us than the Germans, having lived and travelled extensively through both countries. I speak both german and english, and I find it interesting that when I speak german in Holland I am ussually met with a certain amount of hostillity. The moment I start speaking english, smiles appear, and I instantly feel more accepted. Interesting how much difference a language makes. END OF QUOTE

The about quote is a comparison between German and English. Not about German and Dutch. Whatever it is, when the German language is used with the same freedom of speech that can be practised in English, the verbal codes might become quite offensive and brutal. A lot of bruises would perch upon the persons who experience the verbal assault. However, when the same speech is done in English, there is no assault.

For conveying the idea of the verbal assault, I need to use this video. It is a video showing the lower grade Indian soldiers questioning a couple of Kashmiri youths. The youths have their hands tied up. That exactly is not the assault location. The assault is in the communication code. The lower grade soldiers are using the Thoo (lowest You) on the captives. The captives necessarily have to use the highest ennobling You (Aap / Saab) in return. If instead they also use the Thoo word, in most situations, they would be mercilessly shot or otherwise traumatised.

Did the reader understand that if the same lower You is used by an inferiorly placed individual, it becomes a most horrendous assault, which the other side will not condone?

QUOTE: He sent therefore an invitation to them, informing them that on a certain day he intended to give this great feast, desiring them to be present. Not having the slightest suspicion of any sinister design, the proffered hospitality was accepted without hesitation ; and on the appointed day the whole of both the clans attended. Their host was lavish both in demonstrations of friendship and in supplies of beer.

Not suspecting the least evil or danger, they gave themselves up to conviviality and the indulgences of the banquet ; feasting and dancing were the order of the day, but when his too confident guests, whom he plied steadily for that purpose, were muddled with the heavy potations or lying helpless with the intoxication which followed, suddenly, without notice, at a given signal — a shrill whistle — the entertainers with assagai and shield sprang upon their unsuspecting victims, and murdered men, women, and children without mercy. Not a soul escaped !
END OF QUOTE

Generally in feudal languages, affable friendliness is a weapon of conquest. In fact, as of now, almost all native English nations have been ensnared by the lure of deliberately acted out friendliness. In fact, even when neat planning is being done to devour up the native-English nations, extremely alluring friendliness is protruded out.


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c12 #
India overrunning England


Here, I am take a brief detour and take up the possibility of Indian military over-running England. Actually the real possibility of such an eventuality is illustrated in this book in one or two locations. I will mention them later.

The moment India takeover any part of England, there will be a very concerted effort to compulsorily teach Hindi or any other terrific feudal languages to the populace there, especially the younger generation. Once this is achieved, all that the Indian side has to do to shackle the captive English population into a level of nitwits would be to shift the communication to the feudal language.

These are ideas and information on which the native-English mind has no ken. After all it was native-Britain that made Robert Clive commit suicide. Clive did know things which he did not have right words to explain in English. After all, the concept of software came only quite recently.

Even though in South Africa, the native-English has come to a most inglorious connection with the Continental Europeans as of now, the truth is that over the centuries, the native-English did keep a distance from the Continental Europeans, both culturally as well as attitudinal-wise.

In my own Commentary on Malabar Manual, I did write the following words about the Dutch.

QUOTE: It is possible that the Dutch language is comparatively of a lesser feudal content than German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. This is my own summarisation based slightly on the fact that they were more sane and soft in many of their historical activities when compared to that of the German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. It must be admitted that I do not know much about the Dutch, or even about the mentioned other four nations, here.

It is just a gut feeling, that this is so. May be it is due to the fact that they could collaborate with the English people to create a wonderful nation in South Africa. END OF QUOTE.

I must admit that the above words of mine might not be true or correct. My summarisations about the Dutch language as well as about the collaboration with the English could be wrong. In fact almost all that I wrote about the Dutch could be wrong. For, I had simply summarised that the Dutch language was soft. This wrong impression came upon me from the words I had quoted. However, on closer inspection now, I see that the comparison had been between German and English and not between Dutch and German.

In South Asia, the Dutch did try to follow a policy of military attacks and territorial occupation using force. Their aim was not mere trade, but empire building.

See this QUOTE from Malabar Manual: From a very early period in its history the English Company had set its face against martial enterprises. And Sir Thomas Roe, the Ambassador to the Great Mogul, had given the Company some invaluable advice which they took well to heart.

“The Portugueses”, he wrote, "notwithstanding their many rich residences are beggared by keeping of soldiers, and yet their garrisons are but mean. They never made advantage of the Indies since they defended them. Observe this well. It has also been the error of the Dutch who seek plantations here by the sword. They turn a wonderful stock; they prole in all places ; they possess some of the best, yet their dead pays consume all the gain." END OF QUOTE

The English policy was quite the opposite. See the words from Malabar Manual:

QUOTE 1: From a very early period in its history the English Company had set its face against martial enterprises.

QUOTE 2: So far indeed did the English Company carry this policy that they even forbade at times an appeal to arms by the factors for their own defence ; and the annoyances experienced in consequence of this were occasionally almost intolerable. But the strength of the Company lay in the admirable arrangements whereby they encouraged trade at their fortified settlements.

QUOTE 3: They established manufactures ; they attracted spinners and weavers and wealthy men to settle in their limits ; the settlers were liberally treated and their religious prejudices were tolerated ; the privacy of houses were respected by all classes and creeds; settlers were allowed to burn their dead and to observe their peculiar wedding ceremonies ;
no compulsory efforts were made to spread Christianity, nor were the settlers set to uncongenial tasks ; shipping facilities were afforded ; armed vessels protected the shipping ; all manufactured goods were at first exempted from payment of duty ; the Company coined their own money ; and courts of justice were established ; security for life and property in short reigned within their limits END OF QUOTEs

Actually the real reason that the English held on was the planar quality of their language.

In South Africa, it is tragic that England had to collaborate with the Dutch, at last.

In fact, parts of South Asia came under the English rule, not due to any concerted Empire building programme on the part of the English East India Company, but rather the French went on encouraging the native kings and other rulers to attack the Company. However, at the end of each of the confrontations, the French side would be vanquished and the English side would extend their territory.

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c13 #
Slavery in South Asia


Dutch were also the exact opposite of England in its global endeavours. When slave trade was abolished by England all over British Empire, it gave the English East India Company a very fabulous chance and courage to dismantle the traditional slavery in South Asia. In fact, it was the original direction given to them by the Company governors at the very dawn of the Company’s setting up of power in South Asia.

QUOTEs from Malabar Manual: 1. The questions of slavery and the slave trade attracted the early attention of the Honourable Company’s Government. So early as 1702, the year in which British rule commenced, a proclamation was issued by the Commissioners against dealing in slaves. A person offering a slave for sale was to be considered as a thief. The slave was to be forfeited and the person offering him for sale was to be fined five times his value. The purchaser was to be similarly treated. The houses of suspected slave traders were to be well watched and entered and searched on the smallest suspicion, ................. END OF QUOTE.

QUOTE 2: on the 23rd December of that year the Principal Collector received orders desiring “that the practice of selling slaves for arrears of revenue may be immediately discontinued.” END OF QUOTE.

QUOTE 3: The matter in this and other ways reached the ears of the Court of Directors, and in their despatch of 12th December 1821 they expressed considerable dissatisfaction at the lack of precise information which had been vouchsafed to them regarding the cultivators in general, and in particular said : We are told, indeed, that part of them (an article of very unwelcome intelligence) are held as slaves ; that they are attached to the soil and marketable property.

You are directed to obtain and to communicate to us all the useful information with respect to this latter class of persons which you possibly can; the treatment to which they are liable, the habits of their masters with respect to them, the kind of life to which they are doomed, the sort of title by which the property of them is claimed, the price which they bear and more especially the surest and safest means of ultimately effecting their emancipation.

We also desire to know whether those occupants, 150,000 in number, cultivate immediately the whole of the lands by their slaves and hired servants, or whether there is a class of inferior tenants to whom they let or sub-let a portion of their lands. If there is such an interior class of lessees, you will inform us under what conditions they cultivate, what are their circumstances, and what measures, if any, have been employed for their protection END OF QUOTEs

The above quotes very amply display the general attitude the native-English had about the practise of human slavery. However, the local population in South Asia did try to continue their age-old practise of maintain slaves, in a clandestine manner.

The French and the Dutch did try to continue their slave trade business in a sly manner from their small-time outposts on the subcontinent. However, the English rule did take a very severe attitude towards this.

See this QUOTE from the Native Life in Travancore written Rev. Samuel Mateer of the London Missionary Society:

QUOTE: Colonel Munro had also discovered, in 1812, a number of halfstarved and naked natives in irons as slaves at the Dutch settlement at Chunganicherry. The proprietor was a Pondicherry man, and the inhabitants of Chunganicherry persisted in the traffic in slaves in defiance of the proclamation of Government. END of QUOTE

See this quote from Malabar Manual by William Logan:

QUOTE: This practice was kept alive by the facility with which the slaves could be sold on the coast to the agents of vessels engaged in the trade sailing from the French settlement at Mahe and from the Dutch settlement at Cochin. These ships “in general carried them (the slaves) to the French Islands.” END of QUOTE


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c14 #
Native English versus the Boers


Even though this book, THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA, does not move into the location of the historical experiences of the native-English entry into the South African regions, other than in minute hints, I think I must make the assertion that the native English would have been an entity totally opposite to Boers / Afrikaners.

Boers / Afrikaners are seen from this book as a very insidious population who more or less practised the same kind of fiendish devilry that was the hallmark of the various native population groups of the South Africa and thereabouts. This book more or less gives very supportive words about the Bushmen. Physically very capable, very honest, committed, loyal, extremely brave, non-treacherous, keeping words of promise, demonstrating sense of fair-play, able to demonstrate a high level of standards even under very stressful circumstances &c.

I will presently give ample quotes from this book to illustrative these gallant qualities of the Bushmen. However, the reader should notice that the above-mentioned mental features were also those that were seen displayed by the native-English in South Asia. It is quite curious that a population group which has been generally described as the lowest in terms of civilisation has features comparable with a population group that has been historically seen as the highest in civilisation.

The writer of this book is a native Englishman. It is curious that he has sensed mental faculties similar to his own native population in the Bushmen.


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c15 #
Bushmen and the Boers


The Bushmen were ultimately exterminated in almost all locations, where they existed. Well, here a very curious thought appears in my mind as to whether the higher mental qualities of the native-English are moving along the same pathway of extermination from this earth.

It is true that in Europe, the Continental Europeans had tried for centuries to over-run the native English lands in Great Britain. However, they could hold their own. In the same manner, the Bushmen could hold on for a long time, being unconquerable in their unassailable strongholds. However, they were ultimately overwhelmed by the same route that multiculture has paved inside England. That of outsiders with inimical intentions walking inside with false demeanour of affable friendliness

I will speak more about these things later. Now, let us have a look at how the Boers treated the Bushmen.

QUOTE: The Koranas, finding that they could exchange them for guns, ammunition, and brandy with the old colonists, commenced kidnapping their children ; and a few years after the commencement of this traffic, some of the wandering Boers, following the example of their fathers along the Bushman borders of the Old Colony, made forays upon them for this express purpose, seizing almost all their children, dishonouring them if they were girls, and sometimes making eunuchs of the lads ; and thus it was that the Bushmen became greatly exasperated.
END OF QUOTE

In the above quote, Koranas are one of the native populations of Africa that slowly started moving into the traditional homelands of the Bushmen. They kidnapped the Bushmen children and sold them as slaves to the Boers, who gave them guns, ammunition and brandy in exchange. This same business was commenced by the wandering Boers also. So it appears that the others were treating the Bushmen like some kind of animal population which could be tamed for domestic and agricultural work purposes.

QUOTE: The old man still retained his bow and arrows, together with a number of other Bushman implements. He was very proud to show how he worked with his bone awls, etc. His wife was very intelligent, and was evidently well versed in the folklore of her tribe. Unfortunately the time was too short to permit the writer to avail himself of the knowledge she possessed ; and such was the dread of the Boers which animated these unfortunates, that no offer that could be made would induce them to stay even for a short time within the Free State border.
END OF QUOTE.

The above quote is about GEORGE W. STOW’s attempt to enter into a conversation with a Bushmen couple. Their terror of the Boers is what is mentioned above.

QUOTE: Thompson, who visited these tribes nearly twenty years later, says that after the larger game was driven out of the country by the guns of the Boers and the Griquas, the Bushmen were reduced to the most wretched shifts to obtain a precarious subsistence, living chiefly on wild roots, locusts, and the larvae of insects.
END OF QUOTE.

Griquas was the major African mixed group which received the best in terms of cultural and intellectual enhancement from the London Missionary Society. Both they and the Boers had reduced the Bushmen in one locality to the most wretched straits.

QUOTE: He stated that many years before his father's kraal, without the least provocation, had been suddenly attacked by a party of Boers from the Colony ;
and that his father and many hundreds of his people, men, women, and children, had been killed ; that afterwards ten waggons were laden with the surviving children and driven off to the colony by the attacking party ;
that since that time many commandos had come against his people, that multitudes of them had been shot, and the children carried away ; that when the missionary came he ploughed and sowed land for them, and when the harvest was ripe, he taught them how to cut down the corn, and divided it among them ;
and they were happy, for no more commandos came upon them ; that some moons after the missionary had left them the Boers came and took possession of the fountains and chased them from the land of Tooverberg, the land of their fathers, and made them go and herd their sheep and forced their children into perpetual servitude ;
and that he, without people, with only his wife and four children, was hiding amongst the mountains and subsisting on roots and locusts ;
that whenever sheep or goats or cattle strayed, or were stolen, the Boers said that the Bushmen had stolen them, and they were flogged and shot on suspicion only, for the cattle and sheep which had been taken by others or destroyed by hyenas, lions, or panthers.
END OF QUOTE.

The terror that was the Boers. The African populations also were a terror for the Bushmen. However, till the advent of the guns, they could hold on against the local attacking populations.

QUOTE: The only Europeans who then visited it came for the ostensible purpose of elephant hunting, and also, according to the evidence obtained by Sparrman, to indulge in their old and favourite amusement of kidnapping Bushman children whenever a favourable opportunity offered.
END OF QUOTE.

This again can be about the Boers, who could consist of more than one Continental European population mix.

QUOTE: On these occasions the unhappy victims of their attack were generally surprised in their villages at night, the men were shot, and the surviving women and children, together with the cattle, were captured. When these commandos were undertaken, the practice was for a few Boers to unite their separate strength, and the principal part of the booty was divided among themselves, a fractional share only being given to the slaves or Hottentots who were in their service. There were at that time a few Boers in that district who were noted for the cruelties and murders they committed upon the defenceless natives in these marauding and plundering expeditions, and among these the name of Pienaar was not the least notorious.
END OF QUOTE.

The Boers were totally different from the native-English in all their basic attributes.

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QUOTE 1: At that time the Bastaard population was spread along the banks of the 'Gariep for an extent of at least 600 miles. Their numbers, estimated altogether, amounted to about five thousand souls, and they had in their possession at least seven hundred muskets.
They readily obtained constant supplies of ammunition, notwithstanding all the proclamations to the contrary, from the Boers, whom great profits tempted to carry on this traffic in defiance of the colonial regulations and the claims of humanity. The profits of this smuggling traffic were immense, as for every pound of powder sold to the banditti an ox or a cow was given in exchange. Such then was the chaotic state of affairs in 1823, and it was only around the contracted centre of Griquatown, under the immediate control of Mr. Melvill and the missionaries that any signs of peace could be found.

QUOTE 2: They were something in the position of the Boers in Namaqualand whose case we have just noticed ; first their modest requirements were merely to sit still and sow a little corn, then to build a mill, ending however in a dictatorial demand for the entire country.
END OF QUOTEs.

This is an attitude about which native England has to be very wary of. All outsiders, white, black, yellow & brown, who barge into England, have this mental attitude.

QUOTE 1: In earlier times missions among the Bushmen had been established at Tooverbjerg and Hephzibah on the southern side of the 'Nu-'Gariep. They were afterwards most unjustifiably suppressed, and the country in which they were was given to the Boers.

QUOTE 2: Their leader fixed upon this locality as his headquarters or great-place, at a spot called Mamakoa, in the neighbourhood of which are two great caverns, which afterwards became famous in the annals of their tribe for the terrible siege they endured when beleaguered in them by the Boers.
END OF QUOTEs

Boers were just another wild population let loose inside the South African location.

In this book, the next items to take up for inspection are the various native African populations. It is seen mentioned that none of them were the traditional owner population of the locations that is currently known as South Africa. The traditional owners were the Bushmen. However, they were not treated as fully human beings.

For, they had the capabilities of the baboon, could easily compete with a horse in running across the rocky wilderness and had the technical skill to replicate the offensive capability of the serpent. However, they are mentioned as a set of population groups who were in possession of remarkably great sense of justice and commitment.

In the African location discussed in this book, the various native African populations that slowly entered the Bushman areas are all seen to be quite of a savage description. There is one exception mentioned.

Before going into the attributes of the other native populations, let me take some quotes from the book to denote certain features of the Bushmen.

QUOTE: All the farmers along the border had Bushman servants, principally, however, women and children.
END OF QUOTE

This taking of the natives of a place as servants is a very complicated issue, which can be interpreted in various manners. In British-India (around half of Asian Subcontinent), many lower classes did work as servants of the English as well of the Celtic individuals. These things are currently mentioned as the exploitation of the ‘Indians’ by the British. However, the larger fact is that these were the populations kept at various levels of oppression by the native land owners. In fact, in their hands these populations were treated like dirt. When these oppressed classes escaped from these ‘Indian’ brutes, and joined as the workers of the native-English, actually they escaped from a hell in which their families had lived for centuries.

The wider fact is the being under the feudal language speaking ‘Indians’ is a very terrible thing. In fact, if one were to go to the newly cleared forest areas of India, one might find a lot of forest people forced into Indian citizenship and kept at the excrement levels in the Indian feudal language verbal codes by the Indian rich and the Indian officialdom. They are usually addressed in the meanest levels of You, Your, Yours, He, His, Him, She, Her, Hers &c. in the feudal languages of India.

As to the Bushmen working as servants of the Boers, it is not a very ideal situation. May be being with the English would have been better or even the best. This is just because of the planar language quality of English.

QUOTE: My ideas, however, upon this point underwent a considerable change as my notes accumulated, for as I gained more and more information regarding the native tribes, I became gradually impressed with a firm conviction that the Bushmen alone were the true aborigines of the country, and that all the stronger races, without exception, were mere intruders.
END OF QUOTE

If what the writer contends is true, there ends the issue of who traditionally owns the geography of the lands currently inside South Africa. However, if this is true, it does not automatically mean that South Africa - the nation is owned by the Bushmen. That is a different question. I will not take it up for inspection.

QUOTE: as they imagined there must be some ulterior motive in seeking for information with regard to their early movements, having no idea that such a thing could be done from a simple desire of acquiring historical knowledge. On many such occasions, therefore, they feigned profound ignorance and obliviousness, while the younger men of the rising generation, instead of troubling themselves about the ancient traditions of their tribes, seem, as a rule, desirous of forgetting and even obliterating, if possible, the recollection of the antecedents of their savage forefathers.
END OF QUOTE

Viewing the above quote from my South Asian English colonial time book reading experience, I find that two different items have been twined together in the words above.

One is the sense of suspicion about the ulterior motives of such un-understood aspirations of outsiders. See these words from the Native Life in Travancore by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER, of the London Missionary Society.

QUOTE: The report on the Census of Travancore, taken on May 18, 1875, supplies valuable details respecting the population of the State, and their social and religious condition. The enumeration itself caused considerable commotion amongst the people, especially the lower castes. For some months previously the rural population were in a state of complete ferment, dreading that advantage would be taken of the occasion to impose some new tax or to exercise some bitter oppression, as was often done on various occasions in the old times of cruelty and injustice.

This opportunity was seized by some Muhammadans and others, to despoil the poor slave-castes of their fowls and other domestic animals, by telling them that the Sirkar was about to seize everything of the kind, and to exact a similar amount annually, so that they had better sell them off at once at any price than lose them altogether. The Sudras also sought to frighten them by the report that the Christians were to be carried off in ships to foreign parts, in which the missionaries and their native helpers would assist. When numbers were stamped upon all the houses, people thought that soon they themselves would be branded and seized by the Sirkar. Absurd reports were raised.

Some said the Maharajah had promised to supply inhabitants for a country which had been desolated by famine. Others said that a certain number were to be shipped off on the 18th May. Till that date the people were whispering “Today or tomorrow we shall be caught.” For example, an old woman having shut up her grandson in her house for safety, went to call her son, weeping all the way and beating her breast. One who met her comforted her and went back with her to the house, where the child was found half-dead with fright.

Many of the people left their gardens uncultivated during the panic, ate up the seed corn, sold their cattle and sheep. One man had ten fowls, and, taking them to a river, he cut off their heads, and threw them away. So dreadful is the ignorance of the people through want of education. It was even reported that the missionaries had prepared a building on the sea-coast, where a great meeting was to be held, immediately after which the people would be caught and shipped off. Many of the uneducated Sudras also in distant localities were much afraid. END OF QUOTE.

The second item is the response of the modern generations to what had happened in the past in the families of their own ancestors. No one is happy to mention or see mentioned the realities of their past. For instance, in Travancore there was a huge section of very low castes, by names such as Pulaya, Pariah, Vedan &c. and some low caste such as Ezhava etc.

A particular section of these individuals were converted into Christianity by the efforts of such organisations such as the London Missionary Society. Many of these converted persons became rich by various means, including government jobs, occupying forest lands in the erstwhile Malabar district in the Madras Presidency in British-India and setting up huge plantations there and such other ways. Currently none of them want to mention anything about their ancestry. Such a mention would connect them to the various lower castes under the Hindus. The very fact that England had a hand in emancipating them is not known to many of them.

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QUOTE: Even those native authorities of the present day who profess that they have preserved some portion of the history of their tribes have so mutilated and adulterated the traditions, modifying them to suit the altered conditions of the nation or tribe to which they belong, that the originality and authenticity of these narrations have at length in many instances become so completely obscured or destroyed that they are rendered nearly valueless as affording material whereon to build a reliable and veracious tribal history. END OF QUOTE

This again has a very interesting sync with what has happened in South Asia. In South Asia, as of now there are three nations, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The actual history of the subcontinent is that of an immensity of minute kingdoms lying scattered all over the place. Each of these locations would not be a particular nation as currently understood by the word ‘nation’. Instead, each such location would be a series of populations one upon the other in a ladder-like manner, the top one oppressive to the bottom one, and the bottom one revering the top one. The various locations had nothing in common from the northern parts to the southern parts. The populations inside each location were different across the ladder-like set up. As the same time, across the subcontinent also, the populations were different. The languages were different. The cultures were different. And there was no historical, social or family-link connection between the different locations.

Even though it is generally currently mentioned that Hinduism was the common religion across the land, the fact remains that the Hindu religion was confined to the Brahmins only. A few lower to the Brahmin populations in the social hierarchy in each of the locations were much connected to the Hindus, but the vast others were not. The only common link across the lands might be the presence of some group who claimed to be Brahmins. The claim in itself has many problems in that there might not be any family links between the Brahmins across the locations. Even between such closely connected locations like Travancore and Madras Presidency or between Travanore and Malabar or between Malabar and Madras Presidency, there was historically not much of a family-link-wise or social connections. The only link that sprang up periodically was the pillaging, massacring and molesting raids that came in the guise of warfare.

This might be the factual gist of the real history of South Asia. However, that is not the way the history is seen as of now. As of now, India is a great nation with traditions, conventions, systems, legal codes &c. &c. extending backwards over the centuries.

QUOTE: That these Bushmen were susceptible of the feelings of jealousy was illustrated by a tragical incident which took place amongst some of them about this time.
END OF QUOTE

I cannot say anything about how it was with the Bushmen before their land was occupied by others. Their innate emotional triggers and reactions change when they are dispersed among peoples who speak in language systems which are evil. For instance, the native-English people’s emotional reactions will slowly change as England gets filled with the feudal language speakers. Feudal languages can induce terrible emotional disturbances inside the native-English, if and when they get to feel or understand the evil codes inside these evil languages.

Native-English husband-wife relationships can go into disarray in the presence of feudal language speakers. For, these evil language can relocate both the husband as well as the wife to weird locations inside the virtual software arena that exists behind physical reality. Their relationship can get distorted. These are things that require huge information. Interested readers are requested to follow this link.

QUOTE: This is but another proof of the determination of their resistance ; they rallied at the point of greatest danger, as it was doubtless this cause which occasioned them to collect in large bodies, in order to be the better able to withstand the encroachments of the colonists, who had already taken away their best dwelling and hunting places. END OF QUOTE

The above is about Bushmen. However, it could even be about the native-English, as they make a desperate last stand in England in years to come.

QUOTE: Several farmers, who perceived that they were not able to get at the Bushmen by the usual methods, shot a sea-cow, and took only the prime part of it for themselves, leaving the rest by way of bait ; they themselves in the meantime lying in ambush. The Bushmen with their wives and children now came down from their hiding-places, with the intention of feasting sumptuously on the sea-cow that had been shot ; but the farmers, who came back again very unexpectedly, turned the feast into a scene of blood and slaughter.

Pregnant women and children in their tenderest years were not at this time, neither indeed were they ever, exempt from the effects of the hatred and spirit of vengeance constantly harboured by the colonists with respect to the Bushman nation, excepting such indeed as were marked out to be carried away into bondage. END OF QUOTE

The native-English are also headed the same way. To see how the scenario would look like, see what is happening in Indian occupied Kashmir. If the native-English are in the same plight as the Kashmiris at any moment in history, the same experience of the Kashmiris would befall upon the native-English. The only solace would be that the native-English cannot understand the Hindi. This could save them from the hammer blows of the pejorative verbal form that are there in Hindi. However, the Indian side would take all steps to see that the native-English kids learn Hindi, either by force or by cajoling.

QUOTE: Of all the nations, he adds, who have been ill-treated by the Europeans, none remembered their wrongs with so much bitterness. They never forgot the treachery of the colonists or the infamous return made for the many signal services they had rendered them, and such, he says, was the resentment of these people, that the terrible cry of vengeance was ever in their mouths.
END OF QUOTE

The terribleness in the above words is in the callous use of the word ‘European’. This word is seen used in many colonial period writings of South Asia also. The careless use of this word has created a confusion. Actually there was the need to very carefully delineate the definite difference that was there between the native-English and the rest of the white folks who had arrived on the South Asian geographical area. One was quite opposite of the other in every aspect of human quality and refinement. However, in these books they were mentioned in a very slipshod manner, that the negative features of both sides get added up on the native-English side.

QUOTE: The clans which inhabited De Bruyn's and Achter De Bruyn's Hoogte lived peace-ably with the first Christians who migrated there. The latter were then few in number, and doubtless found it expedient to adopt, as all isolated voortrekkers ever did, a conciliatory policy towards the aborigines, instead of the arrogant and overbearing treatment meted out as soon as their number was sufficiently augmented to enable them to dictate terms to those who in the first instance had welcomed them as friends.

In the days of their weakness the Bushmen were accustomed to perform the kindest offices for them, and would frequently go unasked in search of a stray lamb or the like belonging to the Christians, and take it home to them ; but at length, after their countrymen had been harried by the relentless commandos, and massacred in their caves, they withdrew themselves and lived concealed in the holes and crevices of the rocks in different parts of the country, like the other Bushmen.
END OF QUOTE.

Actually all feudal language speakers use the technique of affability, friendliness etc. to deceive another entity whom they want to entrap, conquer or shackle. In fact, just after the 2nd World War the Japanese side used this very scheme to defraud and deceive the gullible US officials. Even women were made available to the US side. They were honoured and shown ‘respect’. And at the end of the day, the US economy and market were opened for the Japanese conquerors to takeover. Even now the US policymakers have not detected this.

The same is the case with the Germans and Italians. However, I may speak about them in some other context.

The issue with persons who come for conquering with no arms or munitions, other than extreme obsequiousness, servitude, servility, affableness, worshipful eyes etc. is that the moment they get the upper hand, they would demand these very same things from the populations which had given them the shelter and the space inside their nation.

See these words a Chinese man who made it big England. It was a conversation with me:

QUOTE: My parents came from Hong Kong which was a former British colony. It was basically a territory Britain won from China so she could sell drugs to Chinese and get them addicted. China was defeated and had to pay reparations as well as cede Hong Kong. This was to correct Britains trade deficit due to her love of tea, silk and porcelain. This caused untold misery to China, devastating families, emptying the coffers (this was one of many incidents where Britain forced reparations on China and seized territory).

There are some very wealthy yes. But immigrants are diverse and many came here poor. My parents came with £20 in their pocket and worked till they built up a business. We lived in an area with many pakistani and indian immigrants who were poor.

Hong Kong government operates at a profit, Britain used to take all of that. Now that she is gone there is more welfare for the people and some years the surplus is shared with the people – last time people got £4-500 each.

That must be why the fought a war of independence to be free of England. They won that war with the help of slaves and non english immigrants. It was a prussian general that trained them into a force that was finally able to defeat the superior trained British army of the time.

It was natives that taught them how to survive in the early days. It was many nationalities that built the railroads. It was slaves that were the backbone of alot of their exports. America still has an edge over other economies because she can absorb ideas and talent the world over.

What is that exactly? All great powers borrow extensively from other cultures. The law was greatly influenced by Romans. The religion was not english. Many common food crops came from the New World. Many medications come from abroad. Things like tea, gunpowder came from China.

North Korea is what you end up looking like if you want to reject foreign things. END OF QUOTE.

Just see the rank backstabbing attitude of this rascal, whose parents arrived in England, in a different mood. The un-understood item in the above quote would be that the moment the Chinese man is pushed back to China, the native-Chinese will take care of his arrogance. When he remains in England, it is the native-English who have to bear it.

Also, the reader should note that if this type of fiends is pushed out of current-day England, the nation will not convert into North Korea. Instead it would revert back to pristine-England.

QUOTE from the above words: this was to correct Britains trade deficit due to her love of tea, silk and porcelain. END OF QUOTE

Only a silly gullible England would believe all this nonsense mouthed by a person who has barged into England. He has no more right to sit inside England than any other Chinese individual. He speaks of tea, silk and porcelain as if they had been stolen from the seabed. China sold it to England and reaped a profit. In India, the opposite is mentioned. England sold Manchester made textiles to India and thus looted India! The fact is that there was no India then and trade is not looting. Looting is what takes place when a common man of India enters an Indian government office. The Indian officials are literally pickpockets.

For more on the above Chinese man’s words, check my book: An urgent appeal for ENGLISH RACISM – Chapter three.

QUOTE: This disagreement became the pretext for the suppression of the missions ; the fieldcomet Van der Walt was against the missions, and had reported unfavourably about them to the landdrost. No specific charges appear to have been made, nor was any investigation instituted. A kind of general assertion was advanced that the collection of so many savages so near the colonial border was a menace to the peace of the colony.
END OF QUOTE

Here we see the general attitude of the Boers – Dutch and German.

QUOTE 1: We can imagine this unfortunate Bushman, surrounded by armed men, signing away of his own free will the birthright of his tribe for a riding horse and some threescore sheep !

QUOTE 2: Yes ! purchased, a riding horse and seventy fat-tailed sheep, valued in those days at some four shillings and six-pence each, for upwards of two and a quarter millions of acres of land ! What a premium for fraud and forgery !
END OF QUOTEs

It is a sample of how the Boers and the Griquas slowly pushed out the Bushmen, with a semblance of legality.


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c16 #
Shamanistic spiritual system


QUOTE 1: the Bushman mind, for, struck with their unexplainable smoothness, he has covered the space with mystic symbols
QUOTE 2:

Figures of this kind were frequently represented in their paintings, which have led some to imagine that they were representations of supernatural personages who shadowed forth an ancient tribal myth.
END OF QUOTEs

This is a location where the native-English writers to be totally at sea. The mention item may or may not belong to what might currently be mentioned as Shamanistic spiritual system. This is something that has links worldwide, even in Europe. Even though not much information is there on what is therein or what is happening, the fact might be that these symbols might have definite code meaning or they might be akin to what can be mentioned for the time being as something similar to the QR Codes. A QR code is more or less a meaningless and incomprehensible picture. However, when scanned using the right scanner, it can do various things, including establishing connections between various things.



I have noticed that neither Edgar Thurston nor SAMUEL MATEER had any profound information on the Shamanistic practise in vogue in the southern parts of South Asia. The same shallowness is there in this book also. However, that is quite understandable in the circumstance. This shallowness would not reflect on the overall quality of these person’s writings.

QUOTE: As it is quite certain that the custom of representing various deities with the heads and coverings of birds and animals must date back to a very remote antiquity, such a misconception is suggestive that all elaborations of this description had their origin in the fact that among the primitive hunter tribes disguises of this kind were constantly used
END OF QUOTE

It might be true that GEORGE W. STOW has missed much. Even such profoundly observant researchers like Edgar Thurston as well as The REV. SAMUEL MATEER &c. have misrepresented the Shamanistic spiritual practises of South Asia as Devil worship. The fact was that the Hindus (Brahmins) did keep a distance with the spiritual practises of the lower castes and classes of those times. However, as of now, all these spiritual practises have been forcefully added into the Hindu religious antiquity.

QUOTE 1: 'Qing informed Mr. J. Orpen that there were certain dances which only certain men were allowed to dance : men who had been initiated, and understood the meaning of them.

QUOTE 2: The initiated who know secret things are 'Qogn'qe ;

QUOTE 3: Having stated that 'Kaang was the first being, and that his wife's name was Coti, he was asked where Coti came from, when he replied, " I don't know, perhaps from those who brought the sun ; but," he added, " you are now asking secrets that are not spoken of," secrets with which he asserted he was not acquainted, and which were only known to the initiated men of that particular dance.

QUOTE 4: that they preserved among their tribes certain mysteries and mystic rites which were revealed to none but a privileged class called the initiated, who alone were allowed to join in certain dances whose hidden meaning was jealously withheld from those who were uninitiated, or the profane vulgar among them.
END OF QUOTEs

The above-mentioned words do point to some kind of Shamanistic spiritual practise in vogue among them in the hoary past. The common people of the society would not know much about these things. For, the practice is done and maintained by certain households, who would not divulge the secrets to others. For instance, in the northern parts of the erstwhile Malabar district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency of the English rule period, (currently Cannanore district in Kerala state of India), there is a shamanistic spiritualism connected to a deity called Muthappan locally.

The social group which is traditionally connected to this is the Matriarchal Thiyyas of North Malabar. However, if any ordinary member of this population group is asked the intimate details of this spiritual practise, he or she will be able to mention only what is commonly known. The inner ecclesiastical secrets are held by those who conduct the practise, and it is not divulged to others.

QUOTE: Such individuals generally belonged to the ruling family or its branches, and thus a kind of caste or rank was recognised, among whose members all the secret mysteries of the tribe were jealously preserved.
END OF QUOTE

The above words can point to both Shamanistic cult and also to the presence of some verbal coding that created a class of individuals among the Bushmen who stood above the common mass.

QUOTE 1: This discovery was an important one with regard to our present subject, for it unmistakably proves that a certain amount of religious belief was connected with some of their dances ; and that, in the painting here described, we are furnished with a positive representation of their fancied deities ;

QUOTE 2: Some writers have suggested that a large number of Bushman paintings are merely, especially where the Bushmen are shown in their hunting disguises, the pictorial representations of some hidden myth.
END OF QUOTE

I feel that in Shamanistic spiritualism and also in various other kinds of rituals wherein the mind is being made to connect to some other sphere of reality, such as in Tantra, Witchcraft, Voodoo &c. dance is a very important ingredient. In fact, I have heard that in Tantra, which is a sort of mystical spiritual art traditionally mentioned as connected to the geographical regions near Tibet, Central Asia &c., in historical times, there are five essential ‘m’ factors: Matysam (fish), Mamsam (meat), Maidunam (sexual intercourse), Madyam (liquor) and Mudra (dance & symbols).

QUOTE: The cross singly, or in groups of three, was one of the most ancient of the Bushman symbols
END OF QUOTE

This is a very curious bit of information. I cannot say more than simply mention that there are many unknown items in the various religions. A cross when seen as a mere placing of two sticks might not have much extra meaning physically. However, when pondered upon this item from the world of the Codes of reality, it might have powers that are currently unknown. It might in the same manner in which I had mentioned the QR code.

Beyond that there is historical fact that Christianity is not an England or Continental European religion. It is practically an Asian / Middle-East religion.

QUOTE: Hence it seems as if through the despised Bushman we obtain a knowledge of the true germ whence the more elaborate, yet fabulous and symbolic animal-headed deities of the more polished nations of antiquity were developed.
END OF QUOTE

I do feel that GEORGE W. STOW did not get to obtain any knowledge in the above mentioned things. The problem would be that he would not be able to know what to look for. For one thing, the concept of language and words having powerful codes encrypted within them, which can interact not only with the social and physical realities of an individual as well the population, but also with the codes of reality and that of life and living body would be a concept, he would not have been able to imagine. Another thing that he would not know about would be about the concept of Software. This is an entity which is not physical or within the realm of any physical sciences.

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QUOTE 1: some Bushman of the present day, deeply learned in the folklore of his tribe, may upon examining them imagine that he can detect a similarity between some myth with which he is acquainted and the pictorial representation before him, and he forthwith may cleverly join the one with the other.

QUOTE 2: Unfortunately whole tribes have been annihilated by the stronger races which seized their hunting grounds, and the wise men of their race perished with them,
END OF QUOTE

I do not think that any ordinary member of the Bushmen populations would be able to decode or decipher the hidden mystical symbols of the hoary past. In fact, even among the current-day Hindus (Brahmins) of South Asia, I do not think that there is anyone who has any information on how the Vedic literature and Mantras were created, or anything about the machinery which could activate the Matras or work them from behind the physical reality, if at all they do work.

QUOTE: a place memorable to their race, where thousands of square feet of the highly polished rock surface are covered with innumerable mystic devices, intermingled with comparatively few animal figures. This must have been a palace residence of the most highly mystic of their race, of men who held something more than the mere chieftainship of a tribe.
END OF QUOTE

Possibly something to do with Shamanistic worship. Bushmen antiquity.

QUOTE 1: Sometimes several musicians would perform on the 'Goura together, raising an unmelodious and unearthly din which however delightful it might prove to a native audience, would certainly be more suggestive of a dance of witches round an infernal cauldron, to ears more refined and cultivated, than anything else.

QUOTE 2: On these occasions the 'Gariep Bushmen made great outcries, accompanied with dancing and playing upon their drums
END OF QUOTE

In the above two quotes, the boisterous activities connected to some kind of ritualistic festivity is being described. However, Mr. GEORGE W. STOW seems to note only the sound, and the din and bustle that is being heard and seen. There is no mention that some kind of a spiritual ritual is also being enacted. However, I am not able to say anything more about this. For, I do not have any information in this regard. But then, in many of the Shamanistic rituals that get enacted in the north Malabar area of South Asia, very many similar things can be seen. In fact, the clatter that the chenda (native drums) create as part of the Shamanistic rituals could very well be described as an ‘unearthly din’.

QUOTE: the Master of all things, who according to their expression one does not see with the eyes but knows him with the heart, and who is to be propitiated in times of famine and before going to war, and that throughout the whole night by performing a certain dance. From this we seem to learn something of the primitive ideas, which became more and more elaborated until dancing was looked upon as a religious ceremony, which, however licentious we may deem the greater portion of these ancient religious performances to have been, were nevertheless at the time earnestly entered into with a view of propitiating some fancied deity.
END OF QUOTE

The above words are not deep. They are just shallow information and based on flimsy information on what is actually going in the Bushmen head. It is like my experience many years ago of asking some spiritual information from a lower class woman in a remote village in South Asia. Her ideas and explanations were based on her own level of spiritual enlightenment. Though interesting, they were not deep enough. If I were to write a book on the spirituality of the location based on her words, it would not amount to much.

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Bushmen Butchered


QUOTE: Many instances might be mentioned where a few wretched fugitives, after their tribe had been mercilessly butchered, have, after hopelessly wandering about for a time, stealthily returned to their ancestral cave, hiding themselves among the rocks by day and stealing out in the early morning and evening to gather a few roots and tubers to prolong their wretched existence, obtaining a little water from a neighbouring spring, and occasionally a little honey from some wild bees' nest among the fissures of their rocky asylum ;
and have thus existed for years, tenaciously clinging to the spot, until feeble and tottering with age, they have sunk from sheer exhaustion and passed away in some hidden nook near where they were born ;
or too feeble to defend themselves, they have been torn to pieces by the ravenous beasts which had made their lairs amid the romantic retreats which had once resounded with the noise of revelry and moonlight dancings of their forefathers.
END OF QUOTE.

The above is one of the graphic depictions of what the stronger races of Africa and the Boers did to the Bushmen.

QUOTE: In judging of their character, there are unfortunately few records left of them in their undisturbed state, and most of the intelligent writers who have treated of this subject visited them after the fierce and cruel crusade had commenced against them, and which, having once been taken in hand, was not allowed to cease until their extermination was rendered a certainty.
END OF QUOTE

The above quote is about the Bushmen. The same might be the situation about pristine-England also. Pristine-England has vanished from the earth. What is left on earth is an England that is being deceived by almost everyone. The top one on this list of deceivers could be the BBC, once considered as the hallmark of English refinement and quality. However as of now, BBC has become a sort of gathering den of the stinks from South-Asia and the rest of the world.

QUOTE: They were driven out of their own country, the vast herds of game which once afforded them abundance of food were ruthlessly destroyed, their children were seized and carried into slavery by the people upon whom they subsequently committed their depredations, and on whom they almost naturally took every occasion for exercising revenge.
END OF QUOTE.

Again the above narration is about the Bushmen. I do however have fears that unless the fools who are ruling England are not kicked out of office, the same kind of events are in store for the posterity of England. The nation has handed itself to the same kind of cunning crooks who had enslaved millions in South Asia for centuries. And the top terror is that even now England has no inkling of what is actually going on.

QUOTE: As we proceed with our investigation we shall discover that they showed a devotion to their chief (a feeling which appeared to be almost entirely wanting among the purely Hottentot tribes) which could not be excelled, as they invariably gathered round him in the hour of danger, and fell to a man rather than desert him in his extremity. Nor was it only for their attachment and loyalty to their chiefs that they were distinguished, but for an almost passionate fondness for the rocks and glens in whose caves they and their fathers had lived probably for generations.
END OF QUOTE

There are some hints of commitment of a very high order encrypted in the above mentioned qualities. They can be connected to certain specific codes in the Bushman communication codes.

QUOTE: On the contrary, during the murderous native wars, when so many of the Bachoana and other tribes were half annihilated and scattered, in many instances the few unhappy outcasts that escaped destruction fled into Bushman territory, where they not only received protection and an asylum, but conforming to the Bushmen's habits and customs, wives were given to them and their daughters intermarried again with the Bushmen, and it was doubtless such infusions of foreign blood which gave a different physical character to some of the families of their leading captains, in contradistinction to those of pure Bushman type.

This good understanding continued until these refugees, increasing in numbers, and some, at last, bringing the remnants of their herds of cattle with them, began to band together and assume a sovereignty over portions of the country. Then, as they grew in strength, they turned upon those who had first given shelter to them when they were helpless and miserable fugitives, and strove by every means in their power to dislodge the ancient owners, who were at once deemed wild and untameable animals when they attempted to prevent the invaders from doing so.
END OF QUOTE

If in the above quote, if the word Bushmen is changed into the ‘native-English’, it would depict the tragic events in store for England, unless some terrific drastic remedies are sort. None of the England politicians seem to know what it is that has entered the nation, by way of feudal languages and feudal language speakers.

QUOTE: As soon as the Bushmen saw these strangers beginning to intrude themselves in large bodies in every direction, with a determination to make permanent settlements, a spirit of opposition was aroused within them. The game, which was as precious to the old hunters as herds of tame cattle were to their aggressors, was destroyed or driven away ; and cattle-lifting almost as a natural consequence took the place of stalking the eland, the quagga, or the elephant. Capture and recapture, injuries and retaliation, soon grew into a war of extermination against the weaker and smaller race, whose unconquerable spirit might be crushed and annihilated, but seldom taught to submit to the trammels which the invading and conquering races were desirous of imposing upon them.
END OF QUOTE

It is possible that the reader can see the definite sameness of events happening in England. People from strange lands entering England with a facial expression of extreme gratitude and affability. They slowly set up beachheads inside the vital areas of England. Even though they seem quite feeble and lonely, they are actually the advance troop of a huge mass of populations who are waiting in their native nations. They have powerful armies ready to show their power and prestige. Once the native English are captives to these outsiders, it will be a terrific scene. For the native English do not know the verbal codes of obsequiousness and servitude. For, pristine-English has no pejorative codes in communication. It would the sweet endeavour of the conquering populations to teach the lessons of obsequiousness to the native-English kids.

QUOTE 1: But that men who had adopted " the rights of the Aborigines " for their watchword should have been so obtuse as not to be able to distinguish who were the true aborigines to whom those rights belonged, seems certainly rather surprising.

QUOTE 2: Much has been said and written about one hundred and fifty rixdollars given as purchase money to the said Bushman, on account of which the claim to the so-called Campbell Lands, a tract of country extending many miles, has been built up ; as if this one man could dispose of the independent rights of his countrymen, men living in different portions of the wonderful range of the 'Kaap, and of clans different from his own.

QUOTE 3: The journey of Mr. Campbell along the valley of this river has a very important bearing upon the subject of our investigation, as it firmly establishes the fact that even up to 1813 the Bushmen were the sole proprietors of this tract of country, and that land claims had not been extended so far by the mission party of Griquatown. END OF QUOTEs

The information in the above statement is that the land of South Africa belongs traditionally to the Bushmen. All the others there have come from elsewhere.

QUOTE 1: Had these men belonged to a more civilised race, the determined struggle which they made for their country and their freedom would have been deemed heroic,

QUOTE 2: He defended himself desperately ; but his determined courage availed him nothing, he and his people fell to a man. Men, women, and children were alike shot down, not one was spared, not a soul escaped.
END OF QUOTEs

Actually, these kinds of experiences might be there in the offing for the native-English also, if they are not too careful about protecting their native land. They have no other place in the world where their natural stature of high personal individuality can be practised. In all other nations, their high stature communication codes and body language would be found to be too arrogant and provocative. In fact, in most feudal language nations, if an ordinary citizen communicates with the officialdom or his or her boss with the same level of refined stature that the native-English does, he or she will be beaten to a pulp or dismissed forthwith. If the native-English land is over-run by others, the same fate that the Bushmen faced will be faced by the native-English.

QUOTE: " A party of Bushmen who had taken refuge in a cave refused to surrender ; they were destroyed," says Mr. Backhouse, " by setting on fire fuel collected at the cave's mouth ! "
END OF QUOTE.

This is what happens when native populations are handed power over other native populations. See what Indian uniformed forces are doing in the various locations inside the subcontinent, where the oppressed people are fighting to escape from Indian official enslavement. In India, almost the total of the governmental revenue is being swallowed by the officialdom.

QUOTE: And this we shall find has ever been the case at all points where the stronger races have come in contact with the Bushmen, and as long as the latter remained in the ascendency fraternisation and intermarriage ensued, but the case was reversed as soon as the intruders gained the upper hand, when persecution and annihilation followed.
END OF QUOTE

This is again a scenario that poignantly points to an England which has been taken over by outsiders.

QUOTE: The law of might was the law of right, and no one retained his property longer than he had the power of defending it successfully.
END OF QUOTE

Actually this was the state of events even in South Asia, until the English East India Company came and set up written codes of law, law enforcement machinery, judicial courts, public administration etc.

QUOTE 1: His country was proclaimed to be within the bounds of the Cape Colony. He pleaded that the land belonged to his forefathers, and that the Tembus were intruders who had forcibly taken possession of a large portion of it. His remonstrances were unavailing, his country was absorbed, without the slightest reservation being made for the ancient owners, and instead of encouragement to induce them to settle down to the peaceful occupations of quiet citizens, a demand of one pound a year was made upon the head of each family as a quitrent !

They were not a conquered people, they were living in a country which, as Madura said, had belonged to Bushmen from time immemorial. They had not made war upon the Colony as the frontier tribes of Kaffirs had done, on the contrary they had done good service in defence of colonial territory and in retaking cattle and other stock which had been captured by the enemy, and now they were rewarded for those services, in what way let the old chief Madura describe. He said the land was the land of his fathers, and that now, although he and his people had served the government for three years, they were told they must pay for living upon it ! Where was the money to come from ?

QUOTE 2: To the colonists he always behaved as a true and faithful ally, and in return for the tobacco and other articles which they presented to him, used to help them to make slaves of such straggling Bushmen as did not live under his jurisdiction.
END OF QUOTE

A sample of Continental European attitude. When the English also get mixed up with the Continental Europeans, they stood sullied.

QUOTE: This is one of the remarkable instances of the astonishing recklessness and daring which some of the old colonial voortrekkers displayed in their determination to find new homes for themselves in the unknown Interior.
END OF QUOTE

In the instance given in this regard - Quote: He trekked on, he knew not whither ! the first of his race to pass through those mysterious wilds, whose river banks, wooded and reed covered, were the haunts of the python and the crocodile, travelling with his family through a perfect terra incognita swarming with ferocious beasts of prey, and passing scattered habitations of savage men, yet moving onward, although single-handed, like a conqueror, arrogantly levying blackmail from the trembling inhabitants, and retaining his prey after he had once seized it, in spite of all their efforts to prevent him. Such acts, however much they may be censured, shewed a determination of purpose, which may have been equalled, but never surpassed. End of Quote.

– actually points to some kind of desperation in this particular man’s disposition. Leaving Continental Europe and making such a terrific effort to go into the deep jungles of Africa does point to something wrong in his native land. The spirit that drove him and his family is actually totally different from the adventurous spirit of the native-English that made them go forth. The English were not so arrogant and murderous like this man. Even in the New World, it might be the piggyback ridding done by the Continental Europeans upon the English settlers that would have created much bitterness among the native folks there. In fact, in the ultimate count, the native-folks stood by the native-English, when the rascal George Washington took to renegade work for the Continental Europeans.

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QUOTE: In favour of an earlier Hottentot occupation, it has been advanced that these natives make a sort of general declaration that the country was theirs. Such claims were afterwards set up for Waterboer, Moshesh, and others, to the exclusion of the aboriginal Bushman owners.
END OF QUOTE

It is seen that the Bushmen are slowly being edged out of all rights to their traditional land.

QUOTE: There were also a number of minor groups intervening between the larger ones which we have mentioned, but of which little now is known except that they once existed, and that most of them were shot down by those who seized their country, because they resented the unjustifiable wrong and attempted to resist.

Such was the fate of those who once inhabited the rocks of Thaba Nchu and the caves in the surrounding mountains. Harris, when passing through this country, found the slope of a hill near the present site of Bloemfontein besprinkled with the mouldering bones of Bushmen, and a few years ago there were numerous spots in the Free State which told the same melancholy tale of the fate of the aborigines.

These unhappy fugitives at last became so terrified at the sight of any human being that there were portions of the country where they concealed themselves so effectually that a traveller might pass through its length and breadth without seeing a single soul, or even, if he were not aware of the fact, suspecting that it was inhabited. Harris informs us that when he passed through the 'Kolong basin, once the home of a powerful group of tribes, such had become their general distrust of visitors that the males would never approach them, except when forced to do so, and then always evincing great trepidation, no object being more unwelcome to their sight than a troop of horsemen on the plain.
END OF QUOTE

As per the above words, the original owners of the land of South Africa are the Bushmen. Boer colonisation was simply like the encroachment done by the other native African populations into that land, in that all of them set out to destroy the Bushmen.

QUOTE 1: Every race of man, savage or civilised, that came in contact with them, appropriated their land without a single pretext of justification, and waged a war of extermination against them as soon as they resisted or resented the wrong that was done to them.

QUOTE 2: she replied, " We know nothing of our grandfathers, we do not know who painted our pictures ; the Dutchmen shot them all down at the great slaughter, and carried us, the children, away. I was a little girl, six or seven years old, at the time.”
END OF QUOTEs.

The Bushmen could hold on against the others till the advent of the Continental Europeans. When they brought in guns and gunpowder, the equations changed. Whatever superiority the Bushmen had in terms of their natural abilities were of no more avail. Indeed the Continental Europeans that arrived there were only a tip of the iceberg. They had a huge nation in Europe which could send them any quantity of ammunition and soldiers.

The same logic should be understood by current-day England. England is now being filled by outsides. These outsiders are only an advance scouting team. They would use all kinds of affable friendliness to set up a beachhead right inside England. When they feel that they have gained a solid foothold, they demeanour will change. They have their native nations behind them, which can supply them with men and munitions.

QUOTE 1: until at last the miserable remnants of their once numerous race had to struggle for a precarious existence in a few almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses or in the wilds of the Kalahari desert.

QUOTE 2: But in this case, as in every other, with the honourable exception of the Leghoya, the true aborigines of the country were never for a moment taken into consideration when an eligible spring or fountain was required by the intruders of the stronger races into their territories.
END OF QUOTEs

It is a moot question as to where the native-English will move to hide when their nation is taken-over. All native-English nations are going multi-culture. The multi-culturists would enjoy feasting upon native-English nations.

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Bushmen - Refined character


QUOTE 1: Notwithstanding their forbidding appearance, they possessed a number of savage virtues, which showed that they were not so utterly worthless as many have delighted in depicting them. Not the least noteworthy of these was their implicit faithfulness in any trust imposed upon them. We have already noticed their loyalty to their chiefs, their strong attachment to the place of their birth, their hospitality to strangers, their unselfishness in their division of food, their self-sacrifice and devotion in their attempts to rescue their wives and children from a life of bondage which they abhorred, their unflinching bravery, and their love of freedom.

QUOTE 2:
Mr. Baines in his description of them added that he had not a little pleasure in being able to state that the behaviour of the Bushmen who visited them was civil and respectful, and they were not annoyed by the constant attempts at theft so common whilst they were travelling through a country occupied by other native tribes.

QUOTE 3: Facts of this kind prove not only the individual honesty of the Bushman thus trusted, but also the general honesty of all those of his race with whom he must have, of necessity, come in contact during the long period of his wanderings

QUOTE 4: This fact illustrates at the same time that these wild Bushmen could not have been the remorseless and bloodthirsty creatures they have been so frequently depictured, seeing that we find them not only in this case, but in numerous other instances, affording an asylum to many fugitives under similar circumstances.

QUOTE 5:
Between this last place and the Karee mountains these travellers met no more Koranas, but several hordes of Bushmen, some of whom, as their sugar was consumed, supplied them with beautiful honey. The travellers thus gained their confidence and some of them followed the waggons, a fact which showed that even at that time, when they were most maligned, a fair reward would secure the willing services of these wild huntsmen.

QUOTE 6: It is worthy of remark, however, that no instance of cannibalism was heard of, either among the Hottentots or the Bushmen, even in their direst extremities.

QUOTE 7: Mr. Campbell, however, who saw much of these Bushmen during the course of his journeys and is certainly no mean authority upon the subject, considers, notwithstanding all the charges brought against them, that these Bushmen, wild as they undoubtedly are, are nevertheless more docile than any of the other native nations, and more grateful for kindness shewn to them.

QUOTE 8: but the honour of having first pleaded the cause of these Bushmen certainly belongs to the Rev. A. Faure, a minister of the Dutch Reformed church, who had long resided on the exposed frontier of Graaff Reinet. His evidence is both valuable and conclusive on the character of these Bushmen for fidelity in any trust imposed upon them. The farmers, he writes, are entirely dependent on the Bushmen for their welfare.

Few, if any, have either slaves or Hottentots, consequently they have no means of getting their cattle properly tended without their assistance. Such farmers as possess Bushmen have been in the habit of committing to them the charge of their flocks, and they have proved such faithful shepherds that the farmers have not hesitated to give them some hundreds of ewes and other cattle to sojourn with them beyond the limits of the Colony.
END OF QUOTEs

Most of the high quality attributes and refinement mentioned above can also be listed out in the historical attributes of the native-English of the pristine-English times. However, when the feudal language speakers spread out as a sort of disease in the English hinterlands, how can the native-English stand up to protect their nation and social system? They would not understand what is happening. It is like the fish in the sea being made captive inside nylon nets. In most probability, the fish would not be able to see the nets.

The same is the situation of the native-English. Their own native legal systems will weave non-see-able net like strings all around them. Only when suddenly they find themselves entangled in the webs of the legal system would they know its power. The power would be in the hands of the outsiders who would be casting the net across the nation.

Again, there is this to be mentioned. The Bushmen were seen as the lowest of the native-African populations. Yet, when cannibalism is taken into account, the Bushmen seems to be far above that disposition, while many of the higher native populations had no qualms in practising this culinary art.

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QUOTE: It was, therefore, in the never-ending war of races which ensued, where all, however much they differed from one another, were against the Bushman, that it merged into one of the fiercest intensity, in which an irrepressible determination was shown, on the one hand, to maintain, at whatever cost, and by every means their untutored minds dictated to them, the lands they considered unquestionably their own ;

while, on the other hand, as the old race were stumbling blocks to the coveted possession, an equal determination was exhibited to exterminate, if possible, the last vestige of those who so resolutely opposed their unjustifiable usurpation. The struggle ended, as all such conflicts ever do, in the ultimate triumph of the strongest, while in its course little forbearance or mercy was shown on either side.
END OF QUOTE

It was like different human populations competing with each other to takeover a forest land. Everyone of them would endeavour individually as well as collectively to exterminate living beings who they considered poisonous and hence dangerous, despite the fact that these living beings were the original possessors of the forest land.

QUOTE: while their very enemies acknowledge them to have been, when left to themselves, a merry, cheerful race.
END OF QUOTE.

This might be a defining words about the native-English in years to come, they have all be exterminated by the feudal language speaking outsiders who are slowly, and yet steadily encroaching into the far interiors of the English hinterlands.

QUOTE: Their incomprehensible attachment to their original mode of life, their strong love of the wild freedom they had ever possessed, were considered as unquestionable evidence of their unimprovable nature, and the members of the formidable expeditions that were from time to time launched against them seemed impressed with the idea that the cause of humanity would be best served by annihilating a race with such peculiar tendencies
END OF QUOTE

‘strong love of the wild freedom’ is something that the native-English possess in its most pristine form. This in spite of them having so many restraining conventions, manners, spontaneous politeness &c. Their freedom is encoded in the planar language codes of English. The moment a feudal language speaker perceives these things in someone whom he or she understands to be a subordinate, his or her mind can sparkle with hate and mood for oppression. These are things which the native English cannot understand or foresee. For, they have no information on how the feudal language speakers have maintained their subordinates over the centuries as slaves shackled with mere words and verbal codes. The feudal language speakers would definitely like to annihilate populations which display ‘peculiar tendencies’ connected to planar language communication codes.

QUOTE: This improvement in their condition we shall discover as we proceed was mainly, if not entirely, attributable to the friendly intercourse that had existed for a considerable time between themselves and the Leghoya, the only tribe which ever intruded itself into Bushman territory that from the very commencement of their intercourse attempted to establish just and friendly relations between themselves and the aborigines.
END OF QUOTE

However, despite all kinds of nefarious details about them, there were people who knew to connect with the quaint refinement of the Bushmen.

QUOTE: The case however was altered when, either to escape the grip of the law or the oppressive restrictions of their own government, or from a desire to live a free and untrammelled life in the wilderness with an unlimited extent of land around them, the colonists began to cross the great mountain ranges in considerable and ever-increasing numbers, carrying their numerous flocks and herds with them, invading the Bokkeveld, seizing the fountains, making permanent settlements, destroying or driving away the game, the Bushmen's means of subsistence, treating the inhabitants, the " zwarte schepsels," with menace and contumely, and reducing all those who fell into their grasp to a condition of abject slavery.
END OF QUOTE

The Continental European colonialists were not at all a refined group anywhere in the world, I feel. They did not treat the Red Indians in a nice manner in South America. In fact, they trampled over them for more than two centuries, I think. it was the arrival of the native-English that ultimately gave them some respite. However, the negative information that had spread about the White skin-coloured colonialist did affect the native-English also to some extent that the Red Indians did go in for a fight with them. However, ultimately most of them supported the native-English against the rank renegade and super fool George Washington. It may also be mentioned that in the US, which was a nation created upon a framework of native-English settlements in the New World, the Red Indians did get a lot of securities, which were not available in the Continental European colonial areas.

The same sort of issues did take place in Africa also. The Continental Europeans were known to go buying black slaves from the Zanzibar coast and elsewhere. When the British West African Squadron arrived on the Zanzibar and such other coasts, to save the slaves from the slave traders, many of the native black got the impression that they were also slave catchers. This kind of wrong information did lead to many tragic events.

In South Asia also, the Continental Europeans did not create any quality history. They did buy the local slaves and sell them elsewhere including South Africa. However, the lot of the indentured slaves of South Asia definitely got a better deal as slaves in South Africa. In the former case, they were treated something like worms that live on the soil. In the latter case, they were treated like slaves brought for work. Naturally they got better dressing standards, and better living conditions. However, when they were seen in quality areas in a comparative manner, they had a lot of grievances. But then returning them to their native living experiences would have been equivalent to throwing them into a stinking cesspool.

QUOTE: Suffice it here to say the Bushmen were pursued and destroyed with a relentless and almost savage ferocity, clan after clan was annihilated, the men were shot down without mercy, and the surviving women and children were dragged into a state worse than slavery. Sometimes they were destroyed in their caves, and no survivors were left ; all, men, women, and children, perished in a heap ; and men, nominally Christians, boasted, as if they had been engaged in some meritorious act, of the active part they had taken in these scenes of slaughter.
END OF QUOTE

The only Christianity that was refined, cultured and promoting the Good Samaritan theme were the English Christians. However, the native-English do not have any information that they should not try to get associated with various other global populations that have the Christian tag. For instance, the Christians of South Asian. There are a number of groups here, with various kinds of history behind them. Actually they are not one group, but different population groups, currently speaking the same local language.

Take the case of the Syrian Christians of the south-western part of the Subcontinent. They came from Syria. When they arrived, they had the presence of mind and social information that they need to be above the various slave castes of the place. For this purpose, they entered into a treaty with the local king. As per this treaty they were able to acquire a lot of social powers. See what is mentioned in one of the treaties (around 774 AD) :

Quoted from Malabar Manual written by William Logan:
We have given to Iravi Corttan of Mahodeverpattnam [henceforth to be called Grand Merchant of the Cheraman world (Kerala)], the lordship of Manigramam. We also have given to him (the right of) the feast-cloth(?), house-pillars (or pictured rooms ?), all the, revenue, the curved sword (or dagger), and in (or with) the sword the sovereign merchant-ship, the right of proclamation, the privilege of having forerunners, the five musical instruments, the conch, the light (or torch burning) by day, the spreading cloth, litter, royal umbrella, Vaduca drum (drum of the Telugu’s or of Bhairava?), the gateway with seats and ornamental arches, and the sovereign merchant-ship over the four classe (or streets), also the oil-makers and the five kinds of artificers we have subjected to him (or given as slaves to him)

We have given as eternal (literally, ‘‘water”) possession to Iravi Corttan, the lord of the town, the brokerage and due customs of all that may be measured by the para, weighed by the balance, stretched by the line, of all that may be counted or carried, contained within salt sugar, musk, and lamp-oil, or whatever it be, viz., within the river-mouth of Codungalur and the tower, or between the four Talis (temples of the deputy Brahmans) and the gramams belonging to them. We have given it by an unreserved tenure to Iravi Corttan, Grand Merchant of the Cheraman world, and to his sons and sons' sons in proper succession. END OF QUOTE

The gist of the above treaty is the right to possess the local slaves under them. And the right to use all the paraphernalia of power and social prestige. The same kind of treaty was entered into by the Jews also with the local king, when they came to settle in South Asia.

The English colonialists were the only people in the recorded history of the subcontinent who strived to liberate the location slave populations and to educate them. However, when English colonialism is mentioned in India, people combine Continental European colonialisms, including Portuguese, Dutch, French etc. with English colonialism. And then the whole lot of negative deeds of the Continental Europeans are quietly heaped upon the native-English.

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QUOTE: Every fountain and every stream had been appropriated by the insatiable greed of the intruders, and a piece of ground upon which none of them could live themselves was allotted for the regeneration of the owners of the soil. How could they learn the advantages of a more settled life on a spot where nothing could be cultivated, and scarcely a sufficient supply of their own primitive roots and tubers could be obtained ?
END OF QUOTE

This might actually be a standard sample of Continental European colonial actions. The English colonialism was not at all like this. However, as of now, no one is bothered to find the difference. For, all native-English nations are crumpling down with the rapid spread of a social disease called Multi-culture.

QUOTE 1: The burgher Coetzee van Reenen had an overseer who kept his flocks near the Zak river, this man was of a brutal and insolent disposition and a great tyrant over the Bushmen ; he had shot some of them at times out of mere wantonness. The Bushmen submissively endured the oppression of this petty tyrant for a long period, but at length their patience was worn out, and one day when he was cruelly maltreating one of their nation another struck him through with his assagai. This act was represented in the Colony as a horrible murder.

QUOTE 2: Thompson, who visited these tribes nearly twenty years later, says that after the larger game was driven out of the country by the guns of the Boers and the Griquas, the Bushmen were reduced to the most wretched shifts to obtain a precarious subsistence, living chiefly on wild roots, locusts, and the larvae of insects.
END OF QUOTE

The above again is not native-English colonial action, but that of the Boers. However, being entwined with the Continental Europeans can misguide the native-English and also make them accomplices to such actions. Even now this danger is there. For England is as of now entrapped by the Continental Europeans. In the second quote, the Griquas are seen mentioned. This is part of the long-terms issue when the native-English movements and organisations work in close collaboration with Continental Europeans and others. The essential Englishness of the organisation gets somewhat hazy.

QUOTE: In defence of these aggressions, they maintained that the Bushmen were a nation of robbers, who, as they neither cultivated the soil nor pastured cattle, were incapable of occupying the country advantageously ; that they would live much more comfortably by becoming the herdsmen and household servants of the Christians than they did on their own precarious resources, and finally that they were incapable of being civilised by any other means.
END OF QUOTE

The above is the Boer arguments for territorial aggrandisements into the native lands of the Bushmen. The next item for introspection is the word ‘Christian’. Continental European Christianity is basking in the halo of native-English Christianity. After all, the actual Christian religion is not European, but an Asian religion.

There is another large item to be noted down. When the feudal language speaking outsiders fill England, the native-English would find it quite irksome to work with them, work under them or to work above them. For, each of these connections will change the inner fabric of a native-Englishman’s soul and innate dispositions.

Actually I do find a very powerful parallel in this, in something that happened in South Asia during the English rule period.

The English government in Madras Presidency in British-India used to keep a watch over the native kingdom of Travancore. This was mainly due to the activities of the London Missionary Society inside the kingdom. This society was on a mad enterprise of unshackling the lower class bound-to-the-land slave populations of the kingdom. The Missionary Society had the opinion that the kingdom was wasting its financial resources by giving various amenities to the Brahmans. See this Quote from Native Life in Travancore:

It is also detrimental to the Brahmans, for it encourages idleness. END OF QUOTE.

Actually there are very powerful reasons inside the language codes that insist that the higher positioned persons should not mingle or mix with the lower placed persons, other than with a cloak of ‘respect’.

In England, if the native-English start working under the feudal language speaking outsiders, their innate native-English refinement would get erased in a very slow, but exponential manner.

From this perspective and information, the fact that the Bushmen had their own lifestyle which they were not willing to forego easily can be mentioned as having more powerful reasons inside it, than can be understood by a native-English speaker.

QUOTE: The hundreds of whom he speaks had been most unceremoniously dispossessed of their country, and all their mountain streams had been appropriated to gratify the territorial greed of a few score men, who called themselves civilised because they had guns in their hands.
END OF QUOTE.

The above words are about the Boers. However, it can be about any group which is armed better than the others. Only the native-English were different. But then the activities of the London Missionary Society did create something similar to happen in the southern parts of South Asia. In Travancore kingdom they improved the enslaved classes and gave them all kinds of technical knowhow, including that of making guns. When the English rule departed from the subcontinent and India was created in the location, these very same classes encroached into next door Malabar forest locations and literally exterminated huge populations of various kinds of animals, which had been living there in relative peace for centuries. These animals include monkeys, deer, porcupines, mountain goats, wild boar etc.

This much is the effect of sharing technical knowhow with other populations who are desperate to get a possession. The affect was more or less same as that of the London Missionary Society arming the Griquas with technical knowledge and skills. The Bushmen suffered in this lopsided societal development inside South Africa, in which only section of the various populations were given terrific technical prowess.

sides in the fight, only takes the social system to more social and civic pains, none of which would be understandable to the native-English as of now.

QUOTE: thus it was that in a short lime a controversy arose between the two rival Societies, the London and the Wesleyan, as to which had the right of teaching at Daniel's Kuil.
END OF QUOTE

This is actually a most unwelcome development. Two missions with the same mission, in the same area.

QUOTE: I beg to recommend that twelve miles along the Vaal river and six towards the Middle Veld, adjoining the country allotted to David Danser and the Korana captain Goliath, be given to the Bushman 'Kousopp." END OF QUOTE

This is the mess in which England has landed itself in collaborating with Continental Europe. They have to make amends for the brutality of the Boers. However, when everyone are defined as ‘Whites’, a part of the blame of the treacherous actions get to fall upon the English also, in the long run.

QUOTE: for if we calmly and dispassionately ask the question, what have been the results ? there can be but one truthful reply, failure, utter failure !
END OF QUOTE

The above statement is about the total end result of the English Colonialism, even though in this book it is about the Christian missionary efforts at improving the savage populations of Africa. However, when speaking about the English endeavour to improve the quality of life in the various barbarian and semi-barbarian locations all around the world, there are certain things to be borne in mind. One is that the stay-at-home England and Britain had a very contorted view and information about English colonial efforts.

Many stay-at-home Britons really had a feeling that English colonialists were literally trampling the rights of the various native population and capturing the colonies. The actual fact is that in many of these locations, the English colonial efforts were directed in emancipating the populations which had been kept in a state of slavery for centuries, by the local feudal landlords. England was in many ways acting against the actions of the colonial English officials. It was a case of both sides, England and the colonial English, acting at cross purposes

Second was the fact that English colonialism was mixed up with the Celtic language speaking populations. These populations were literally the same semi-barbarian populations that were to be seen in the various colonial locations. The only difference might be that they were white-skinned. And that they had lived in close proximity to the English for centuries. This last mentioned item is a very fabulous social experience, which if South Asia had experienced for a similar period of time would have transformed South Asia into a wonderful social location.

The third item to mention is that the British Labour Party and many of the leftist idiots in Britain were actually collaborating with the social enslavers of the various colonies. For instance, Nehru, Gandhi, Subashchandran and many others from South Asia were actually part of the feudal landlord classes which had run roughshod over the lower classes of the subcontinent for centuries. British Labour Party and its super fiend Clement Atlee literally handed over the populations of South Asia to such terrible characters again.

QUOTE: We have already expressed astonishment that men who could speak so pathetically of " the poor natives " could not see the inconsistency of upholding the fictitious rights of their protégés at the expense of another race, whose land had been coolly appropriated because it was weaker than themselves.
END OF QUOTE

Even though the above statement is about South Africa, the same argument shall stand in the case of South Asia also. It is about the handing over of the various populations of South Asia to the ancient or newer feudal language exploiter classes of the subcontinent by Great Britain. Actually, the lower class populations have stood by the English rule through thick and thin. Yet, they were handed over to the same brutes who would use the feudal language pejorative words upon them again, when they have them in their clutches.

QUOTE: All the most eminent students of philology inform us that such must have been the condition of the speech of primeval man, and all history demonstrates to us, if we will but read it rightly, that all the modes of thought, and even religious beliefs, of the present day are but the elaborations and development of others more ancient.
END OF QUOTE

I need to take the above statement away from the content of this book. The fact is that almost all modern age technological progress, systems, ideas &c. can be connected to England or proximity to England over the centuries. In the present century, many US based businessmen, entrepreneurs and such other persons have been literally taking and giving it for free to all the other competing economic entities all around the world, with no qualms that they are cheating their own countrymen of their antique property. If the citizens of any other nation like China were seen distributing their national property to others, they would be in prison or experiencing something worse.

QUOTE: but with an intimation that in the event of a battle being inevitable, the Bachoana must strictly refrain from the slaughter of women and children (as was their barbarous practice), and that all the enemy who laid down their arms should receive quarter as prisoners of war.
END OF QUOTE

The above is very obviously a native-English intervention. What has been mentioned would never dawn in the minds of feudal languages speaking populations, even if they are from Continental Europe.


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c19 #
Bushmen versus the native African encroachers


QUOTE: As in every instance where the stronger races have come in contact with these aboriginal hunters, the Koranas, Griquas, and Batlapin displayed the utmost vindictiveness towards them. It seemed a strange perversion of ideas in all these tribes, which were accustomed to condemn the Bushmen with such vehemency as rogues, that they should themselves be professional thieves whenever they had an opportunity.
The only difference between them as to roguery was that the Bushmen stole in small companies and the others in large parties like an army. The same way of judging, however, is as common in Europe, the crime and the charge seem both lost where the perpetrators are numerous.
END OF QUOTE

Native-English colonialism was built up by very miniscule number of Englishmen. However, they were supported by the lower class of the colonial areas. But then even the higher classes of the colonial areas also supported them. For, it was quite plainly seen that they were the only population group who were honest and committed to their word.

See these Quotes from Travancore State Manual by V Nagam Aiya, a native of South Asia:

QUOTE 1: In 1750 A.D. the French attempted to form a settlement at Colachel. It does not appear that they were successful. In the next year the Rajah of Travancore wrote to the King of Colastria ‘advising him not to put any confidence in the French, but to assist the English as much as he could’”.

QUOTE 2: Ever since the death of the faithful Dalawa, the Maharajah (Marthanada Varma, king of Travancore) was slowly pining away. On the 27th Mithunam 933 M.E (July 1758), he knew his end was approaching and so called his nephew the Elaya Rajah to his bed-side and gave him the following advice: —
.............
.............

“That, above all, the friendship existing between the English East India Company and Travancore should be maintained at any risk, and that full confidence should always be placed in the support and aid of that honourable association.
END OF QUOTEs from Travancore State Manual.

QUOTE: Harassed and driven from one part of their ancient hunting-grounds to another, they seemed as if, finding that they could not drive the intruders back again, a wild and uncontrollable spirit of revenge was taking possession of them, while the greater portion of their enemies appeared to have formed the determination to extirpate them from the face of the earth.
END OF QUOTE

I do have fears that in the coming centuries, the native-English posterity would also behave in a ‘wild and uncontrollable spirit of revenge’.

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QUOTE: The quiet he speaks of was the quiet of annihilation. It was the peace of death !
END OF QUOTE

The outsiders who have barged into England would in later centuries engage themselves in bringing in peace inside England by the extermination of the native-English race.

QUOTE: the Koranas had been engaged from time immemorial in the most rancorous hostilities with the Bushmen, and it was a long time before they could be persuaded to look at a Bushman without attempting to murder him, so deep was the inveterate hatred between the two races.
END OF QUOTE

This was the way the native-Africans viewed the Bushmen, who had been the actual owners of the lands of South Africa.

Queen VICTORIA

QUOTE: In his later years' he added to his former declarations that as soon as he possessed the means he would go to Victoria and show her how unjustly he and his father had been dispossessed of their lands.
END OF QUOTE

It is wonderful to see the above lines. Even though in most modern academic studies, England has been decried in very many ways, the fact remains that for huge sections of traumatised populations all around the world, England was the only source of solace. Even in South Asia this was the truth. I have indeed seen words similar to what has been mentioned above in other places.

Below is an excerpt from Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman written by Bradford, Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins). It is a true life story detailing a scene of slaves escaping from the US to Canada.

Quote: The fugitives were on the bottom of the wagons, the bricklayers on the seats, still singing and shouting; and so they passed by the guards, who were entirely unsuspicious of the nature of the load the wagons contained, or of the amount of property thus escaping their hands. And so they made their way to New York. When they entered the anti-slavery office there, Joe was recognized at once by the description in the advertisement.

"Well," said Mr. Oliver Johnson, "I am glad to see the man whose head is worth fifteen hundred dollars."

At this, Joe's heart sank. If the advertisement had got to New York {See map}, that place which it had taken them so many days and nights to reach, he thought he was in danger still. "And how far is it now to Canada?" he asked. When told how many miles, for they were to come through New York State, and cross the Suspension Bridge, he was ready to give up.

"From dat time Joe was silent," said Harriet; "he sang no more, he talked no more; he sat wid his head on his hand, and nobody could 'muse him or make him take any interest in anyting." They passed along in safety, and at length found themselves in the cars, approaching Suspension Bridge. The rest were very joyous and happy, but Joe sat silent and sad. Their fellow-passengers all seemed interested in and for them, and listened with tears, as Harriet and all their party lifted up their voices and sang:

I'm on my way to Canada,
That cold and dreary land;
The sad effects of slavery,
I can't no longer stand.

I've served my master all my days,
Widout a dime's reward;
And now I'm forced to run away,
To flee the lash abroad.

Farewell, ole master, don't think hard of me,
I'll travel on to Canada, where all the slaves are free.
The hounds are baying on my track,
Ole master comes behind.

Resolved that he will bring me back,
Before I cross de line;
I'm now embarked for yonder shore,
There a man's a man by law;

The iron horse will bear me o'er,
To shake de lion's paw.
Oh, righteous Father, wilt thou not pity me,
And aid me on to Canada where all the slaves are free.

Oh, I heard Queen Victoria say,
That if we would forsake
Our native land of slavery,
And come across the lake;

That she was standin' on de shore,
Wid arms extended wide,
To give us all a peaceful home
Beyond de rolling tide.
Farewell, ole master, etc.

END OF QUOTE from Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman

However, the black slaves of the US are speaking to each other in English. And not in their varied native languages of Africa. This being so, actually the slaves life in the US would not be any kind of slavery if it is compared with what was the state of life of the lower classes of the South Asia in those days. If the US blacks were slaves then, then the lower classes of South Asia were worms tied to the soil.

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There is another instance of Queen Victoria being addressed by the people of Africa, which I have with me.

The book Martha Ann’s Quilt for Queen Victoria written by Kyra E. Hicks is the true story of Martha Ann, who is 12 years old, when her Papa finally purchases her freedom from slavery and moves the family from Tennessee to Liberia. On Market Days, Martha Ann watches the British navy patrolling the Liberian coast to stop slave catchers from kidnapping family and friends and forcing them back into slavery.

Martha Ann decides to thank Queen Victoria in person for sending the navy. But first, she has to save money for the voyage, find a suitable gift for the queen, and withstand the ridicule of those who learn of her impossible dream to meet the Queen of England. Her knowledge of Queen Victoria comes from reading a Liberian Newspaper. Source:

However, going back from the US to Liberia does not seem to have been a sensible action, retrospectively.

In my own maternal side, there was my mother’s grandfather who used to sing praise of Queen Victoria in his evening hours, mentioning her as Amma Maharani (Great Queen mother). These are emotions that would not be found in the decrepit Indian history written by rank fiends, who are wallowing in huge government salaries of astronomical size.

QUOTE 1: Even when surrounded and borne down by a host of enemies, the Bushman seldom or never asked for mercy from his hated foes. Wounded and bleeding as he might be, he continued obstinately fighting to the last. Shot through one arm, he would instantly use his knee or foot to enable him to draw his bow with the one remaining uninjured.

QUOTE 2: All the available evidence, however, with regard to the vindictiveness of the Bushmen proves that it was not a part of their natural character, but rather a developed feeling which gradually took possession of their breasts

QUOTE 3: His last arrow was on the string. A slight feeling of compassion seemed at length to animate the hostile multitude that hemmed him in ; they called to him that his life should be spared if he would surrender. He let fly his last arrow in scorn at the speaker, as he replied that " a chief knew how to die, but never to surrender to the race who had despoiled him ! " Then with a wild shout of bitter defiance he turned round, and leaping headlong into the deep abyss was dashed to pieces on the rocks beneath. Thus died, with a Spartan-like intrepidity, the last of the clan. and with his death his tribe ceased to exist.
END OF QUOTEs

The above-mentioned qualities of the Bushmen actually required someone of the right quality to appreciate it. The Dutch were not the persons to do it.

QUOTE: On each occasion he allowed the interpreter, Du Plessis, then a boy of fourteen years of age, to enter his rock-fort to deliver his message, and then depart unharmed, without any attempt to molest him. It is well worthy of notice that the Bushmen, wild and untamed savages as they were considered, almost in every instance respected the person of an envoy sent to them
END OF QUOTE

Actually these were the kind of qualities that held up the English East India Company as a group of individuals who would keep their word and would also be fair in their dealings. This stance is good only if they are in a strong position. For, when dealing with populations who are untrustworthy, their stance of fair-play would not be appreciated.

QUOTE 1: but the chief, although told by the messenger that to ensure his safety they would walk hand in hand until they came into the presence of the commandant, had no confidence in the promises made to him. At last, becoming impatient, he said, " Go ! be gone ! Tell your commandant that I am not a child, and that (striking his hand upon his breast) I have a strong heart here ! Go ! be gone ! My eyes cannot bear the sight of you longer ; and tell your 'Gousa my last words are that not only is my quiver full of arrows, but they are filleted also round my head, and that I shall resist and defend myself as long as I have life left ! 'Kamans ! Go ! be gone ! "

The envoy departed, and was allowed to return to the commandant in safety.

QUOTE 2: At length, probably from the diminishing number of his arrows, and under strong assurances that his life would be spared, he consented to capitulate. He left his cover, and advanced amongst them ; but immediately he was in their power, in utter violation of the promises that had been made, one of his enraged captors treacherously shot him through the head, and a heap of stones was hastily thrown over his body. Thus ended the career of the last of the Bok-poort Bushmen.
END OF QUOTEs

In the first quote, the Bushmen chief has no faith in the promises offered. However, he himself is quite fair in his dealings. The envoy is allowed to leave safely.

In the second Quote, the Bushman trusts the words of the Dutch attackers. He surrenders. But he is killed. Actually, this is the way it is when dealing with the uniformed forces of South Asia. I mean, India. If and when a person surrenders to them, he immediately is reduced to the lower grade Thoo / Nee level of addressing. Once this is done, he is mere cattle to them.

QUOTE 1: The undying attachment which many of these people displayed to localities where they and their fathers had lived has been too frequently and clearly demonstrated to admit of refutation.

QUOTE 2: Had they been men of any race except that of the despised and often falsely maligned Bushman, the wrongs which were heaped upon them, the sufferings they endured, their daring and intrepidity, their unconquerable spirit, and the length of the hopeless struggle they maintained when every other race was arrayed against them, coveting their land and thirsting for their blood, would have placed them, notwithstanding the excesses into which they were betrayed, in the rank of heroes and patriots of no mean order.

QUOTE 3: Their greatest crime being that they were the original possessors of the soil, a war of extermination was waged against them, until at last the miserable remnants of their once numerous race had to struggle for a precarious
END OF QUOTEs

It is quite curious that I find some strange resonances in the above statements with the tragic state of the native-English as of now. They are on their last stand, so to say. Even though they feel that they are quite strong, the fact is that everything that they have traditionally possessed is in danger of being taken-over by outsiders. Even their military would slowly transform into something eerie and monstrous, reflecting the new persons who would be the personnel inside.

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EFFECT OF LANGUAGE CODES


QUOTE 1: The photographs of Bushmen were supplied by Miss Lloyd from her large collection. They show the striking features of the people of this race : the hollow back, the lobeless ear, the receding chin, the sunken eye, the lowness of the root of the nose, the scanty covering of the head with little knots of wiry wool, and the low angle of prognathism as compared with negroes.

QUOTE 2: It seems somewhat surprising that so many writers have continued to class these people with the negroes and other dark-skinned, woolly-haired species of men ; whereas if we are to judge from their physical appearance, with the solitary exception of the hair, no two sections of the human race could be more divergent.

QUOTE 3: It is possible that the character of the hair may point to the fact that they hold a kind of intermediate station, a kind of connecting link, but still one more nearly related to the men of the north than the splay-footed, swarthy races of Central Africa.

QUOTE 4: Even the bones of the Bushmen show a marked difference from those of a large number of the negro type.
END OF QUOTEs

It is curious that a similar kind of ethnographic study had been done on a vast scale by Edger Thurston in South Asia. In his book, Castes and tribes of Southern India, he does describe how he went around measuring the dimensions of the skulls of different caste individuals, and tried to arrive at some powerful connection between caste and human skull design.

However, I personally think that he was on a very erroneous track. The real human and social designing is done by the powerful language codes. The language codes act upon a human being mind and body powerfully to chisel and hammer down the various anatomical parts. It also does the same action on the human mind.

However this is a phenomenon not understandable in pristine-English. And as of now, this has turned out to a very dangerous piece of ignorance, which literally is gnawing at the very vitals of all native English nations and social systems.

As to the Bushman looks, these things can be studied in relationship to their own native language codes, the language codes of the others around them, and even from the communication codes of the animals with whom they were in daily contact. However, only a researcher who knows what to look for can do this. A native-English researcher would not know what to look for. And a multiculture, multilingual swarmed-into-England researcher would not like to divulge what he or she knows.

QUOTE: while a noticeable alteration had taken place in their physical development. They were no longer tribes of diminutive dwarfs, but they had become a taller race of men, although still inferior to the more robust and manly Kaffir.
END OF QUOTE.

As to the above words, I think the gist has some connection to the affect of language codes, when they shift from one location to another. Interested readers are requested to check my book: Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages. See this Quote also:

QUOTE: One very striking feature in the pure Bushman race is their remarkably dwarfish stature
END OF QUOTE

A very pointed enquiry can be initiated upon the Bushmen tribe persons who are currently US citizens, descendents of Bushmen individuals who had arrived there as ‘slaves’. It would be quite interesting to see the way the English language has redesigned their body features and facial demeanour.

QUOTE 1: Baines states that some of these Bushmen in the immediate vicinity of the Lake were fine fellows, six feet high..

QUOTE 2: He met them at Rapesh, under a captain named Haroye. " He and some others were at least six feet high, and of a darker complexion than the Bushmen of the south. They frequented the Zouga, and had always plenty of food and water. They were a merry laughing set."
END OF QUOTE

The quality of the language, whether it is feudal or not, as well as the exact position of the individual inside the language would have a significant effect on the overall mental and physical stature of the individual. A merry laughing set would mean a mentally liberated group. This could reflect upon the physical stature also. My expression ‘exact position of the individual inside the language’ is also not an attempt at shallow verbal acrobatic. I

n feudal languages, there are heights and depths, and even their trigonometric components, wherein a person will be positioned according to his or level of ‘respect’. Even a very minute change in this precise position, can change the various links and strings and the powers of the uplifting, downgrading, pulling, pushing, hammering, chiselling etc. all of which will be continually bearing upon the individual. These are things about which a native-English individual has no information on.

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QUOTE: The explanation of this apparent divergence is doubtless to be traced, as in other well-authenticated cases, to an admixture of foreign blood, rather than to mere variations of climatical conditions upon such nomads as some of the branches of this old hunter race, especially as we find such an admixture taking place upon other border lines, where other Bushman tribes have been thrown in contact with the stronger races that were being impelled upon them.
END OF QUOTE

The effect of admixture of different ethnicities would no doubt have its affect. However, a change in the language system or mixture of language codes also would affect the looks. How much depends on many factors.

QUOTE: a grave of a Bushman captain or chief, which consisted of a large cairn of stones and branches of trees ; and every " Bushman on passing the pile was in the habit of adding a stone to the heap, as a mark of respect for the deceased."
END OF QUOTE

The above mentioned ‘respect’ is actually a part and parcel of many feudal languages. In fact, this respect is can actually be a sort of exhibition of ‘obsequiousness’ and need not be any kind of ‘respect’ as understood in English.

QUOTE: The huntsmen of the Kalahari constructed great lines of fences and a continuous series of pitfalls, which, when we consider the primitive and imperfect tools at their disposal to carry out such extensive works, requiring so large an amount of labour to accomplish, must excite our wonder, if it does not arouse our admiration of their perseverance and enduring energy, which such achievements unquestionably demonstrate.
END OF QUOTE

Civic activities of each specific social systems can be based on its language systems. In a planar language system like that of English, there is a fetterless communication across the neighbourhood. This would lead to the creation of splendid social infrastructure of great quality. However, in a feudal language system, there is an element of forced labour and regimentation of labour. In fact, in South Asia most of the grand forts, palaces, waterways etc. would have been created by the use of forced labour. If this regimentation can be enforced very forcefully, the location would look quite spic and span. However, the place would be populated with a few percent of superior human beings and a huge percent of enfeebled ones.

QUOTE: Chapman states that there was a sociability about these Bushmen which was not always found among the members of tribes of other native races, thus when the larger game was scarce they would hunt all day for roots, bulbs, tortoises, etc., and then in the evening meet together to share and devour the spoils.
END OF QUOTE

This again can point to some very specific language code that induces the sociability or it could point to some social machine like that seen in Christian churches and Islamic systems. These kinds of social machines can override the splintering codes of feudal languages to some extent.

QUOTE: They lived comparatively chaste lives, and their women were not at all flattered by the attention of their Bachoana lords. Instead of an honour, they looked upon intercourse with any one out of their tribe, no matter how superior, as a degradation.
END OF QUOTE

This can be due to a terrific coding in the language codes. Usually in feudal languages, there is always a great aura of divinity that is seen to enwrap the superior person or group of persons. Women naturally sense it. In many social systems having feudal languages, the verbal codes of ennobling acts as a sort of aphrodisiac. However, in the above-mentioned case, the female seems to above the tugs of these verbal codes. The language code location might need inspection to find out as how this is affected.

QUOTE: from the writer's experience some of their simple refrains had as much effect upon their feelings as our own more perfect and elaborate compositions have upon civilised men.
END OF QUOTE

Without knowing the verbal structure of the Bushmen language it would not be possible to make any conclusive assertions. However, when speaking about the feudal languages of South Asia, it may be declared here that a definite beauty can be created in the songs and poems, by talented lyricists. The words have a 3-D ambit in the way it interacts with reality in the virtual software arena that exists behind physical reality. This is an information about which I cannot give more details. Interested reader can read my book: Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c. for more information on this.

Inside feudal languages, emotions that get entwined to the words and verbal codes can be pulled up and down, from the level of despicable levels to that of extremely fragrant golden areas. This is an information that the native English have no information on. See these Quotes from Native Life in Travancore written by The REV. SAMUEL MATEER:

QUOTE 1: QUOTE All singing and playing are in unison : harmony and part singing seem to be almost unknown in India, which causes their music to be generally uninteresting, if not repellent, to European ears. END of QUOTE

Now see the below Quote:

QUOTE 2: Sir W. Ouseley, in his “Oriental Collections,” says:- “A considerable difficulty is found in setting to music the Hindu ragas as, as our system does not supply notes or signs sufficiently expressive of the almost imperceptible elevations and depressions of the voice in these melodies, of which the time is broken and irregular, and the modulations frequent and very wild. END of QUOTE

Now see this Quote:

QUOTE 3: Many of the Hindu melodies possess the plaintive simplicity of the Scotch and Irish, and others a wild originality pleasing beyond description. END of QUOTE

In the first quote, Mateer mentions the general uninteresting nature of the South Asian music. However, in the third quote, he mentions the mystic beauty that the melodies can possess. Along with that comes the more interesting part that the melodies of South Asia do have qualities quite near to that of Celtic language melodies. I do remember proposing that the Celtic languages of Britain could have feudal language structure or something quite near to it.

See this quote also on the effect of verbal codes. In feudal languages, the affect is of the celestial levels.

QUOTE: Whilst 'Kouke was singing the upper line, the old man became visibly affected, and kept continually touching her arm, saying, " Don't ! Don't !
END OF QUOTE

However, there is this refrain to be mentioned. In feudal language melodies, even a non-decrepit low-grade human personality can be swung momentarily right into the hallowed locations of high grade ennoblement by mere verbal acrobatics.

This is a phenomenon that cannot be replicated in planar languages like English. However this relocation is only transient and has no material basis. The moment the music is stopped, the mind of the low-grade person comes slowly swinging back to his or her original low-grade personality in the feudal language. But then, the experience of the emotional swing is so high that the person literally has experienced a kind of hallucination. This can give a feeling that the feudal language, which actually degrades him or her, is a wonderful language.

QUOTE 1: This feasting and revelry was continued for three or four days, or until all their provisions were exhausted, during which time the lady visitors abandoned themselves to every species of licence, and had no cause for missing the absence of their husbands.

QUOTE 2: In this the women formed themselves into a circle similar to the preceding one, the chief took up his position in the centre, and frequently hopped and sprang round on all fours like some animal, the women in the meanwhile dancing and placing themselves in every possible lascivious position, until the great man in the centre pounced upon one of those who had most distinguished themselves and performed that in the sight of all which in more civilised communities is reserved for the strictest privacy, amid the applauding clatter of the excited dancers forming the enclosing circle.
END OF QUOTEs

When speaking about sexual morality, there are many things that might need to be understood. For instance, in the southern tip of South Asia, there is a caste known as Nair / Nayar, who in the earlier centuries were described as a kind of local Sudras. However, they were not the lower castes, but rather a middle level caste, just on the third rung of the social hierarchy under the Brahmins.

In those days, Nair households and women were accessible for the local Brahmin caste members. Even though as of now, this social custom might be described as bad, the full truth is much wider than that. In feudal languages, there are persons on the higher levels of the verbal codes whose presence, association, touch, viewing &c. can be understood as a very positive item. At the same time, the same things done by a person positioned lower in the verbal codes, would be of the most drastic negative impact.

It would not be easy for a native Englishman to understand precisely how the verbal codes act to create such drastic effects.

Apart from the above, there is this sentence to be noted: ‘performed that in the sight of all which in more civilised communities is reserved for the strictest privacy’. Multi-culture inside native-English nations have literally replicated this scene over there. In the earlier days, the youthful mood had been captivated by the English classical literature and movies of that genre. As of now, multicultural porn businessmen have become the new social trainers.

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QUOTE: We have learnt also something of their government, their character and domestic habits, their means of subsistence, their weapons and modes of hunting.
END OF QUOTE

Actually the above claim might be quite shallow. It is similar to or reminiscent of the claims of the academic subject called Politics and International Studies, that it is able to understand nations across the globe. The fact is that native-English cannot understand feudal language nations. The whole social machinery is quite different from anything that is known to a native-English individual. The afore-mentioned academic subject is next to nonsense, and if the foolish technical words are removed from it, it might be quite near to zero in profundity.

QUOTE 1: but before doing so treacherously watched an opportunity, after they had been treated with so much hospitality, of seizing the Barolong cattle whilst they were grazing away from the town, and having two or three guns compelled the owners to flee.

QUOTE 2:
Whilst here, a chief of the Batlokua, or the men of Ma-Intatisi, sent messengers to them, telling them they were to build walls round their kraals. This mission was to throw them off their guard, and the Bakuena, believing them, fell into the trap.
END OF QUOTE

Actually treachery is encoded in feudal languages. However, whether this had an influence in the above instances might need to be studied.

QUOTE: The Baratlou, as we have already seen, had many contentions among themselves, each struggling for supremacy.
END OF QUOTE

Might point to the presence of feudal language

QUOTE 1: The great happiness of the Bushman was however in his honey harvest, when the combs of the wild bees' nests were dropping with honey. It was then that he brewed his primitive mead, with which a certain root was mixed which rendered the beverage more intoxicating. This root however was kept a profound secret, except to a few chosen members of the ruling family..

QUOTE 2: From the researches of the writer, he is convinced that there were certain secrets among many of the tribes which were not known to every member of them, but which were kept as heirlooms in a certain branch or family, and which gave them a superiority over the rest, thus laying the first foundations of " caste."................................. This exclusive knowledge naturally gave rise to an amount of reticence on the part of those who were the guardians of these special secrets, that was most difficult to overcome.

QUOTE 3: until they became reverenced as the special keepers of those traditions which were ultimately deemed as possessing some mysterious and sacred authority, thus giving rise to the germ and the development of a priestly caste.

QUOTE 4:
It is said that the safety of the Bushmen depended upon a certain powder, long kept as a most profound secret, which they sprinkled at night upon their camp fires, and to which the lions showed such an antipathy that they would not approach the spot.
END OF QUOTEs

See the above four Quotes. Whenever I see such exclusive attitudes, I suspect the existence of certain kinds of verbal codes in the language. May be it is some kind of feudal language codes, in which the Bushmen are at variance from the pristine-English stances. Or it can even be something akin to the Nobility as seen in Great Britain, wherein a particular kind of class system has managed to find a space and slot inside a planar language social system.

Even though I cannot speak in a very categorical manner, I feel that any kind of class distinctions can be maintained only if there are some verbal codes that hold it in place. Even though English is a planar language, at the location where the nobility as well as the monarchy exists, the language codes do display some feeble kind of feudal language codes.

QUOTE: even among the Bushmen the truth of the axiom was recognised that " Knowledge is Power."
END OF QUTOE

The above quote is actually, I think a maxim that is generally used by the native-English. The words are attributed to Francis Bacon, and from there to Thomas Hobbes words in Levianthan : scientia potentia est (Latin).

I am not sure as to how much the native English really understood this phrase. If they had understood its gist, I am sure they would not have gone around the world spreading English and various kinds of technical skill and professional acumen, including that of Medical education and computer using skills.

The real fact is that in feudal languages, it is not knowledge per se, that is power, but the higher position in the verbal codes in a language. Among the lower class technically skilled persons, the issue of knowledge converting into power exists. For this reason, among the working persons in India, there is a terrible kind of mutual competitiveness and jealousy with regard to knowledge.

That is, no one who has a technical or other kind of information or skill will share it with others. Even the language English is not allowed to be learned by others. For, English is a communication software that can literally erase a lot of communication blocks in individuals. Allowing a competing person to learn English is akin to letting loose a dangerous adversary who had been held captive.

QUOTE: those near his great place were held in a state of abject servitude, and subjected to the greatest cruelty.

On one occasion, two horses having been suffocated in a quagmire, he ordered the two Bushmen who had charge of them to be bound to them and thrust back again into the morass, with an injunction not to lose the horses again.
END OF QUOTE

The above words can be taken as evidence of some kind of feudal language codes in the communication system in this specific location. It need not be a common feature among all the Bushmen. In fact, in South Asia, I have found that different languages in neighbouring areas do have different social hierarchy encrypted in them. This can be detected only by a person who knows the languages, and does know what to seek for.

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QUOTE: They were members of distinct tribes, having different languages, customs, and grades of honour, from that of the descendant of the colonial farmer to the very lowest state of degradation in the Bushmen.
END OF QUOTE.

The above statement is about the formation of Griquatown, with the active intervention of the London Missionary Society. The presence of social hierarchy which is akin to a caste system can point to the existence of feudal language or feudal languages in action among the native Africans and the Boers. English language cannot erase this effect unless the feudal languages are wiped out from the social system.

QUOTE: Again, in 1854, when this chief was attacked by Sekeletu, the son of Sebitoane, and the last of the Makololo chiefs, the Bushmen on this side thought it was a good chance to sweep off a lot of his cattle. His people could neither pursue, nor dare engage these " black serpents " of the desert, so after a while he dropped a hint that he supposed they thought he was dead and the cattle without a master, that they were hungry, and that now the affair was forgotten. He then sent a man with tobacco to buy skins of them, and having by a long course of deceitful kindness lulled their suspicions, he proclaimed a grand battue.

Of course the quarry was the Bushmen themselves, who were surprised, disarmed, and brought before him where he was sitting on his veld-stool. He superintended the deliberate cutting of their throats, embittering their last moments by every taunt and sarcasm his imagination could supply. One of the actors in this bloody drama was afterwards in Chapman's service, and " related with great gusto the part he had sustained in it."
END OF QUOTE

This kind of deceitful attitude is a hallmark sign of the presence of feudal languages if practised among human beings. For in South Asia, these kinds of terrific deceits are commonly practised by the higher classes upon the lower class individuals with no mental qualms. And the lower classes themselves practise such things amongst themselves, upon the weaker sections or individuals.

QUOTE: With these unfortunates, the cunning and treacherous Koranas, in order to deceive them and their pursuers, whom they supposed were now close upon their heels, left some of their plunder. The Matabili, overtaking the unsuspecting Basutu, and finding a portion of the stolen cattle in their possession, butchered in cold blood some ten to twelve hundred of these wretched victims to the baseness of the Koranas, and returned in triumph with the recaptured cattle and the spoils of the annihilated tribe to the great place of their master.
END OF QUOTE

This is oriental cunning at its best. However, here it has been enacted by an African native tribe. The Continental European colonialists also must have been quite cunning.

QUOTE: Most probably the other names would be found to possess equally significant meanings, could they be rightly interpreted.
END OF QUOTE

This again is a very pertinent point. Languages of South Asia are absolutely different from English. Whatever meanings, senses and interpretations that can be given to names, sentences and words in such languages in English, are just the narrow view and perspective from English. It is akin to understanding a carnivorous beast as a deer or something similar. Even names have specific social stature codes that come encrypted with various social rights, right to command and also duty to obey.

Whatever English can understand of my statement can only be something that English can imagine. It will not come anywhere near to what the reality is. These are things to be known before native-English nations are declared as multi-culture. For, the other side consists of populations and peoples who have been able to keep huge number of populations under them as bound-to-the-soil slaves, with no chains or shackles, but only with mere verbal codes.

There is this statement in a report send by Col. Munro when he was the Diwan (Chief administrator) of Travancore for a few years. QUOTE: The influence of names is considerable, and the discontinuance of the title of karigars will be attended with advantage. END OF QUOTE.

However, the powerful load of information he intimated to England was not understood over there.

QUOTE: Their language was so different from that of the Cochoqua that they could only communicate through Chainouqua interpreters END OF QUOTE

Language is the vital encoding that design the social system.

QUOTE: Thus, whilst they possess the physical characteristics of the Bantu nations, and are as a rule even blacker than the Ovaherero, and although they are as different in colour and stature from the Hottentots as it is possible for two races to be, still we find the remarkable fact that one language is common to both peoples.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very curious statement. In that two different populations have the same language. Even in South Asia, different looking populations do currently speak the same language. However, in many cases on close observation, one might spy the fact that each of the different populations does occupy different hierarchical slots in the same feudal language.

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QUOTE: The meaning of the word is equivalent to the expression, You showed us no mercy.
END OF QUOTE

Verbal codes can encompass a huge amount of emotional content.

QUOTE: men of more robust build and of a fiercer and more warlike appearance, speaking a language altogether different in its construction, and therefore indicating an independent origin from that of the Bushman branch of the human family.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement in the context of this book might be okay. However from a wider perspective, it is a very shallow statement. Just consider a native of South Asia born and bred in England, living totally secluded from all his or her antique linguistic culture. The only pristine-English ambience since birth will definitely create an individual who is totally different from his or her own family relations back in South Asia.

QUOTE: The farther north the traveller goes, the rougher and more rugged he finds the language ; the nearer he approaches the southern coast the more musical it becomes, the Sesuto being more musical than the Serolong, and the Kaffir more musical than the Sesuto.
END OF QUOTE

Actually there will be a huge content of information in these things. However, as of now, the native-English has no means of even being aware of such a thing. The main issue is that they have been kept in the dark about various things connected to feudal and other kinds of languages. There is need to understand that languages are actually very powerful software applications, with myriad abilities.

QUOTE: the general name Bachoana signifies the men who are equals, those who are all the same, and seems to have arisen from the belief that they are all offshoots of one common stem.
END OF QUOTE

It is not known as to how truthful the above statement is. The term ‘equals’ in various languages, is a very complicated word. The complexity is not easily understood in English. This is one very terrible issue facing the native-English population. Their concept of equality is not a concept different or apart from the general mood and codes of pristine-English. However, in other languages, the word ‘equal’, ‘equality’ &c. are mentioned in a very deliberate manner. I cannot mention more here. For, it is a huge content connected to language codes.

QUOTE: The infant progeny, some of whom are beginning to lisp, while others can just master a whole sentence, and those still further advanced, romping and playing together, the children of nature, through the livelong day, become habituated to a language of their own ; and thus from this infant Babel proceeds a dialect composed of a host of mongrel words and phrases joined together without rule, and in the course of a generation the entire character of the language is changed.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very enlightening scenario. How languages were formed. However, actually languages are very powerful software, into which the brain software inputs a lot of terrific codes.

QUOTE: from constant intercourse with beasts of prey and serpents in their path, as well as exposure to harsh treatment, they appear shy and have a wild and frequently quick suspicious look.
END OF QUOTE

Actually this so-mentioned ‘a wild and frequently quick suspicious look’ might have some connection to their language, and the location inside which they exist in mutual relationship to each other.

QUOTE: The old Korana captain, thinking they had come in the same friendly manner as before, hastened to meet them, and offered to the chief, according to their custom, sundry articles of food for himself and his people.
END OF QUOTE

Feudal language speakers use affable friendliness as a weapon of conquest. There are indeed different word codes for pretended friendliness, which would abruptly change the moment, the mood changes to that of offence and attack. England has to watch out.

QUOTE: From the only reliable evidence which can now be obtained, it would appear that the title Hottentot is not of native origin, but a sobriquet given to them by the early Dutch traders from the almost unpronounceable character of their language.
END OF QUOTE

Being unable to pronounce the words in the feudal languages of South-Asia was indeed a great blessing for the English East India Company in South Asia. For, this inability kept them safe from being made part and parcel of the barbarian social emotions of the feudal language speaking land.


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Post posted by VED »

c21 #
BOERS and Hottentots


QUOTE 1: That the Hottentots were treated with great cruelty by many of the old colonists few will be prepared to deny, outrage begat outrage, and atrocity atrocity, but on the other hand many abhorred the treatment which these miserable people received, and did what was in their power to ameliorate the condition of compulsory servitude to which all those who lived within the pale of the law were reduced.

QUOTE 2:
The state of unrest which ensued from the vain endeavours of the vanquished Hottentots to regain a portion of their cherished cattle, caused the governor Goske to issue in 1675, three years after their defeat, orders that every male of the tribe who fell into the hands of the Dutch was to be destroyed.
END OF QUOTEs

The Hottentots are not mentioned as Bushmen, but something quite near to them, I think. Boer attitude towards them was also equally cruel.

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c22 #
ENGLISH INTERVENTION



QUOTE: Bearing upon this subject, Colonel Collins, in his report (1809) upon the native tribes, recommended that the Bushmen should be introduced into the colony, collected and instructed in institutions, and then dispersed among the colonists. He pointed out such positions as he considered most eligible for the formation of stations under proper regulations. The Bushmen, he stated, often suffered extreme misery, but seldom robbed except to satisfy their wants, and afforded the fairest hope of becoming in time useful to themselves and to the colony.
END OF QUOTE

I should assume that the above mentioned Colonel Collins might be a native-Englishman or at least a Briton. If so, his aspirations are in sync with the general native-English postures all around the world. Check MALABAR MANUAL written by William Logan.

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QUOTE: How it could be for a moment imagined that this arbitrary and continual seizure of land, without the slightest reservation being made for the unfortunate outcasts whose fathers had occupied it unchallenged from time immemorial, could be carried into effect without outraging every sense of justice, seems almost marvellous ;

yet still more so on our finding that when a hapless Bushman, not only deprived of his ancient country but also of the very game which had been to him as much his means of subsistence as the flocks and herds of the intruders who were superseding him were of theirs, happened to steal a sheep to keep himself and his family from starving, if apprehended and taken alive, he was publicly flogged under the scaffold, branded with a hot iron, put in irons, and condemned to hard labour.
END OF QUOTE

There is something that needs to be mentioned about the mood of the writer here. He is obviously echoing the mood of English colonialism in various locations, where they did see the local stronger populations pressing down upon the lower placed populations. This statement of mine might seem quite unintelligent to those who have formally studied that English colonialism was exploitative &c.

However, it would not take much intelligence to understand that such kind of ‘history’ has been promoted by the very same stronger populations in whose hand the lands have been given back by the stupid stay-at-home Britons. Just to illustrate the point, let me simply mention that a huge percentage of the Indian population cannot afford a bank account. They do not have any experience with digital currency and such other things.

No one in India of the stronger populations (I mean the officialdom and the rich) would love to see these downtrodden populations come up. Yet, many of these very downtrodden populations literally worship their oppressive master classes. That is how the feudal language communication works.

Yet, the English colonial rule was very much aware of the existence of the lower classes who they tried their best to bring up. However, the moment the lower class man comes up, his next endeavour would be to see that others of his own class do not come up. That is also encoded in the feudal languages.

QUOTE: His brother Nicholas Barends is described by Mr. Moffat as being a very superior man, both in appearance and intellect, with an excellent memory, and good descriptive powers
END OF QUOTE

I do not know how it was in Africa. However, in South Asia, there were a huge percent of population who looked and lived like feeble minded cattle. However, at the other end of the social spectrum, there were the individuals who were quite intelligent, cunning and shrewd. The native-English living in England did not understand that South Asia was a mix of both elements.

The latter was quite a dangerous population group, which had kept the former in a state of slavery by means of mere verbal codes. All endeavours by the leftist groups to give entrance to the individuals from such cunning populations into native-English nations were fraught with acute danger for the native-English populations. For, they understood the entering entities only in their translated into English form. They real savagery was encoded in their satanic native feudal languages.

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QUOTE: The missionaries who were leading the way were probably in their simplicity and ignorance dreaming of conducting their proselytes far away from the haunts of wicked men, and founding a place of eternal peace and quiet in the depths of the wilderness.
END OF QUOTE

This is about the Griquas whom the London Missionary Society was promoting. Whatever social reformation is being envisaged, it should be borne in mind that the most powerful location is that of the language codes. Without removing or erasing the evil feudal languages from the mind, thoughts and speech of the individuals in the society, no social reform will have permanence. This is the same thing that happened in South Asia also.

QUOTE: Upon receipt of this report, the lieutenant-governor General Dundas promptly authorised a commando to pursue the murderers, but recommended cautious treatment and forbearance to be shewn to the Hottentots, so as not to cause aversion by uncalled for severity to make them dangerous enemies instead of useful servants.
END OF QUOTE

This is the exact complication that should arise when the native-English mingle their actions with that of the Continental Europeans or with their own Celtic language populations. The native-English mood is to go through the route of fair-play. However, that route has no meaning for the Continental Europeans and the Celtic populations.

QUOTE: One is surprised to learn from a letter from the Rev. Dr. Philip to Lieutenant-Colonel Wade, that after all the agitation about Griqua claims the missionaries Anderson and Kramer took possession of the springs, not in the name of any individuals, but in that of the London Missionary Society, thus assuming to themselves the power of ejecting any person from their infant dominion who was not subservient to their rule.
END OF QUOTE

This is a location where everything becomes hazy. The missionary society naturally does not want any interference in their activities, which definitely are altruistic, but possibly foolish.

QUOTE: Under the powerful patronage of the London Missionary Society, whose members in those days could do no wrong, the power of annexation displayed by their Griqua protégés seems to have been amazing.
END OF QUOTE

The wider insight in this statement is the power that accrues on any population that gets English national support in those days when England was pristine.

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QUOTE: It was also during this visit, and at Mr. Campbell's earnest recommendation, that they agreed to adopt certain fixed laws for the protection of life and property, and that judges or magistrates should be chosen to put them in execution.
END OF QUOTE

Wherever in the world, the English colonial empire was established, or where the native English had any say in the matter, they went ahead to create fabulous social, administrative, judicial as well as police system, based on written codes of law. However, these things functioned in perfection only when the native-English were in charge. The moment they left the charge to the local feudal language speakers, these systems went corrupt.

In Travancore kingdom, where these things had been copied from British-India, everything worked in a most corrupt manner. In fact, the lower classes were more frightened of the officials and the police than anything else. Even in current-day India, the officialdom and the police are a terror for the lower classes. The higher classes know that this is how it should be. For they are also quite wary of the lower classes, whom they keep suppressed by keep their children forced into compulsory formal education, where they are treated like dirt and kept in slavery for around 10 years, teaching utterly useless things.

QUOTE 1: The Bushmen," he says, " inhabited the country about Philippolis. We exterminated the Bushmen, and Dr. Philip gave us the country. We exterminated the Bushmen and the Koranas between the Hart and Vaal rivers, and occupied the country." That this was no mere figure of speech appears plainly from the following extracts taken from the Graham's Town Journal, written by the Hon. Robert Godlonton, M.L.C., from which we shall find that these unfortunate Bushmen suffered great atrocities not only at the hands of the Koranas, but equally from those of the Griquas who followed them. In one portion of the country where two or three thousand of these people formerly lived, in 1843 but five small kraals of them were left.

QUOTE 2: We must confess that it seems remarkably strange that an agent of a Society, the members of which have ever set themselves up as champions of the poor oppressed aborigines, could thus coolly annex a piece of territory for the behoof of another set of natives under their charge, without mentioning a single word about the Bushman proprietors, who we now know were living there.
END OF QUOTE

This is the wider effect of London Missionary Society equipping one population with arms, ammunition, technical knowledge, military systems etc. inside a social location where every population are to destroy each other, or to crush the most refined among them.

In fact, even in modern times, England as well as other native-English nations has interfered in many Asian and African nations’ internal internecine fights, favouring one of the parties in the fights. The problem here is that the native-English as of now, cannot understand what is or are the exact provocations that has spurred the fight. Intervention to correct any social error should be accompanied by an understanding the error in the first place. And apart from that handing the location back to one the

QUOTE: These operations were sometimes carried out under the personal superintendence of the British Resident.
END OF QUOTE

It is tragic that the name of Great Britain got entwined in these incidences. These things are caused by collaborating with non-English populations. Also there is the issue of Celtic languages speakers inside Britain. They are not English. Some of them are rank anti-English.


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Post posted by VED »

c23 #
The entry of various other populations into South Africa


QUOTE 1: Here tribe followed tribe, the stronger as in every other case pressing the weaker before it ; again they were like successive waves, the one behind urging forward the one immediately in front, the Abatembu, the Amaxosa, the Amampondo, and the Amazulu, ever advancing from the eastward.

QUOTE 2: For a long series of years after this collision the nomadic clans indulged their love of plunder, in making forays and raids upon one another, or, as restless as the Arabs of the desert, they attacked any other tribe in the neighbourhood that they considered sufficiently weak to fall an easy prey to their lawlessness.
END OF QUOTEs

This is the savage of state of the location.

QUOTE: No tribe in their vicinity enjoyed a moment's repose, and after they were furnished with firearms and mounted on good horses, they pillaged all the tribes around them in succession, until their chiefs inspired their neighbours with such terror that they spoke of them as wolves. They even reduced some of the fragmentary Bachoana and Basutu tribes to a state of vassalage, obliging them to become herdsmen and servants.
END OF QUOTE

The real state of Africa and Asia, and many other feudal language locations, till the advent of the English colonial rule.




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c24 #
African social situation

QUOTE: but robbed from the Cochoqua and others, who on that account pursued them on every opportunity, and on coming up with them put them to death without mercy. They also plundered many people, not only of their cattle, but of their women, which robbery and abduction were much practised in war by all these tribes.
END OF QUOTE

If this was South Africa, South Asia was not much different in those days, with regard to periodic barbarity.

QUOTE: Their wars generally originated in disputes about cattle, in which their chief wealth consisted, and frequently in one tribe boasting its superiority over another, which rousing the pride and rage of the party insulted, they flew to arms to ascertain which tribe was the strongest.
END OF QUOTE

It is quite curious as to how quite like South Asian history, the above words sound. In South Asia, the native feudal language codes were entwined with the emotions of honour, respect to be extracted in the form of obsequiousness and words of servility from the other side. A very minute disinclination to exhibit it in the verbal codes could create uncontrollable emotional shock in the other side.

QUOTE: The sufferings however which the Namaqua endured both on this and on previous occasions had no effect in teaching them forbearance to those whom they found weaker than themselves, and whom they attacked in their turn ; and it cannot be questioned but that they were guilty of acts of equal barbarity, not only upon the Bushmen, but also upon the Ovaherero, or Damara clans, living to the north of them.
END OF QUOTE

In feudal language social systems, there is actually no oppressor and no oppressed, in black and white. Anyone with the upper-hand will oppress the side which is weak. In the verbal codes, there is no space for politeness, rectitude etc. to be exhibited to the weaker side. Being weak itself will change the verbal codes.

In fact, in feudal languages, a solitary individual is markedly different from a person who has one or more subordinates. The very words You, He, She &c. will change in form.

QUOTE: Their modes of attack, the disguises they had worn, their appearance and their arms, the great achievements they had accomplished, and the mighty victories they had won, would be again and again recited. According to the descriptive powers of the ancient narrator, would the recital of their prowess be more and more elaborated and intensified, until the magnitude of their reported deeds would be considered something more than human, proving, as it would be said, the degeneracy of the men of their race then living.
END OF QUOTE

Though the above words are about African Bushmen, the fact is that in most of the locations in South Asia, this is exactly one of the most prominently used routes to find out history. In fact, formal history is being corrected and rewritten by the film world and other media geniuses by glorifying events and persons beyond the defining qualities of the populations of the location.

QUOTE: the Bushmen shew in their paintings the earliest stages of the process of exaltation ; while the sculptured and pictured remains of the ancient Hindus, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians display, among the other creeds, its highest elaboration and development.
END OF QUOTE.

The above quote might be quite shallow in that, it might have been written without any deep information on various things mentioned.

QUOTE: An instance has been given in the reminiscences of another tribe of an old reclaimed cannibal, whose mouth watered as he was conversing in his old age with a too tempting individual.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement goes to show some of the native emotions and cravings of some of the native folks of Africa.

QUOTE: At Barmen Baines saw several hapless women, who had been mercilessly crippled in some of these cattle raids by the same inhuman wretches, who had cut off their feet as the easiest way of obtaining their iron anklets !
END OF QUOTE

Feudal language speakers are generally savages akin to wild animals. I should categorically mention that not only many Asians, and African populations, but even some of the Continental European populations are of the same content. However being near to England might have subdued their savageness over the centuries.

That has happened all over the world, including in South Asia, when the native-English came near them. However the pristine-English population of yore might have vanished from even England as of now. For, pristine-English populations are those who are born and bred among native-English people. They are not individuals who have feudal language speakers all around them. Nor are they the persons who have had education under the feudal language speakers.

QUOTE: The Ovaherero like the Namaqua despise the Berg-Damara as heartily as possible. These, they declare, stand quite on a level with the baboons which inhabit the rocks, and dig up uintjes like the Berg-Damara. Nothing excites the laughter of the Ovaherero so much as to say that the Berg-Damara are as good men as themselves.
END OF QUOTE

There is repulsions to certain other populations. It is just like in South Asia. People do take pain to convey the information that they are different from certain others. And in many cases, this would be true also. However, the slender difference might not be detectable to an outsider to the language system.

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QUOTE: They were often at war with the Namaqua, generally in consequence of their stealing women from each other.
END OF QUOTE

This is just another provocation for war. There are no specific civilised codes for national or international or social interaction. All these civilised and polite codes appeared in many locations only after the English colonial rule arrived.

QUOTE: Heaven knows some of us are bad enough, but the utter want of decency, and even of common humanity, apparent here seems to be the rule, and not the exception.
END OF QUOTE

Here worthy of remark is the word ‘us’. Nowadays it is a fashion to speak of all human beings as a single ‘we’ or ‘us’. Actually human beings are not one single ‘entity’. Human beings are very dangerous to other human beings. Actually the only human being population which might be seen as different and good were the native-English only. All others were worse than wild animals to each other.

I am quoting from two sections in Malabar Manual written by William Logan. The incidences are connected to fights in which the native-English were in charge of one side. Their main soldiery were the native soldiery from the local population group known as ‘Nayars’. See the native SouthAsian brutality against the natives of the same subcontinent:

Quote 1: Captain Lane bombarded it at pistol-shot distance from 6A.M. to 3A.M. After its surrender, the whole of the garrison, men, women and children, were Captain Lane reported, “cruelly—shamefully— and in violation of all laws divine and humane, most barbarously butchered” by the Nayars, notwithstanding the exertions of the English officers to save them. End of Quote

Quote 2: A large body (300) of the enemy, after giving up their arms and while proceeding to Cannanore, were barbarously massacred by the Nayars. By the Chief’s exertions 600 or 700 more were saved and taken to Tellicherry. A third body of 200 horse and foot, while trying to escape inland, was cut off by the Nayars. The loss of the allies was not very great, the English lost five natives killed and 8 wounded. End of Quote from MALABAR MANUAL.

QUOTE: before they were plundered by the Namaqua Hottentots — a rich and industrious nation, capable not only of working in metals, but also of undertaking works of no small importance, such as sinking wells of ninety or a hundred feet in depth, with a spiral path cut round the sides to enable people to descend to the water.
END OF QUOTE

There is something to be said about the above words. In South Asia, there were traditional blacksmiths, potters, carpenters of fabulous skills who could design huge buildings &c. However, they were not the upper classes in the social system, but were more or less the relatively lower castes and classes. The upper classes who were the standard bearers of the social system treated them with disdain in body language as well as in language codes.

At the same time, they were bereft of most technical skills. In a very cunning contorted projection of reality, it is the higher classes and castes who are currently promoted in the insipid Indian academic history book as having had remarkable intellectual and technical acumen. To support this idea, mention is made of Vedic text &c. which actually have very feeble connection with current-day India and Indian populations No one really knows who created the Vedic texts with what software machinery.

QUOTE: we have the industrious Ovambo, skilled in the working of metals, displaying an energy in overcoming the difficulties of nature unparalleled in any other native tribe of South Africa, exhibiting also in the neatness and extent of their dwellings and in their passionate love for agricultural pursuits, all the characteristic traits of the most advanced of the Basutu tribes, such as the Bakuena, the Bamangwato, and others.
END OF QUOTE

Africa is a very big continent. Populations having various levels of social standards would have been in existence over there. However, the ease by which the swarming in other populations can come in can spell disaster to these refined social systems. The same was the danger that the pristine-England of yore faced.

QUOTE: ; moreover, these Koranas were also unacquainted with the use of poison to render their arrows more efficacious and fatal, until they acquired this knowledge from the Bushmen, from whom they first obtained their supplies, but who for a long period retained the secret of its manufacture ;
END OF QUOTE

There might be a mighty lesson in the above lines for England. Their technical skills, communication software English, sophisticated machinery etc. are all now in the hands of populations who have no love for them. Anyone can see the acute danger that England faces. Yet, very few native-Englishmen seem to be bothered.

QUOTE: Like the Bushmen, the Koranas exposed the aged to be devoured by wild beasts
END OF QUOTE

No comment

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QUOTE: They bore an inveterate animosity towards the Bushmen, on account of continual depredations on their flocks and herds. Their wars with the Bushmen were prosecuted with so much rancour that quarter was seldom given on either side, either to old or young. Though possessing similar weapons to the Bushmen, those of the Koranas were superior in size and workmanship, and their poisoned arrows were occasionally feathered.
END OF QUOTE

Here again, there are an immensity of lessons for pristine-England. When the outsiders slowly takeover the economy, they will find the native-English quite non-corporative, and lazy. Moreover, some of the lazy Englishmen would be seen to be engaging in stealing and such other things. The new occupants of the nation will come over them with a terrific vengeance. Even though the terror of these actions might seem new in England, actually there are everyday events in nations in South Asia and elsewhere.

Apart from the above, there is another quite remarkable thing also in the above quoted words. The Koranas learned the technique of making poisoned arrows from the Bushmen. However, they improved upon it and created a weapon which was far superior to that of the Bushmen. The same thing can happen in England. The outsiders will learn the basics from the native-English and then create machines and weapons which are far superior to what the native-English can make. For, they have innumerable lowly paid and lowly kept populations under them.

QUOTE: The countenances of the Koranas exhibited a total absence of mind, combined with an indescribable habit of drowsiness.
END OF QUOTE

It would be quite nice to check the language codes within their own communication.

QUOTE: Though very good friends among each other while poor, the moment they obtained a quantity of cattle by plunder they began to quarrel about the division of the spoil. On some of these occasions this was carried to such an excess that they continued to fight and massacre each other till very few remained on the field.
END OF QUOTE

It might be interesting to check the language codes. There would be very specific verbal codes that create a mood of affinity and consideration when poor, and quite the opposite when rich.

QUOTE: He stated that when he was a child the Bushmen of that part believed that the only people in the world were Bushmen and Lions.
END OF QUOTE

Actually this feeling was there in many locations in the world till the advent of the European colonisation. However, please note this also: If England had been near to South Asia, even South Asian nations would have embarked upon global pursuits.

QUOTE 1: A large number of the disaffected had removed to the mountains east of the Zeekoe river, and had betaken themselves once more to the lawless and bandit life from which the missionaries after years of danger and difficulty had happily reformed them.

QUOTE 2: but no sooner had he passed from the scene than among his late followers years of painful missionary labour appeared thrown to the winds in a moment, and they returned apparently with renewed zest and eagerness to their old occupation of plunder and violence, which would have appeared astonishing, did not history teach us that such a sudden revulsion is but a natural reaction in the untutored mind of the savage when he finds himself released from a control the beneficial effects of which he can neither appreciate nor understand.
END OF QUOTE

A population’s various innate dispositions are encoded inside their native languages in the form various codes for triggers, switches, expressions, obligations, compulsions, craving for respect, requirement for extending servility in words and body language and so many other very minute items. Social engineering by the native-English without any information on these things would actually amount to letting loose powerful populations who would have no qualms about devouring the very group who lend them liberty.

QUOTE 1: They were accompanied by their wives and children, and finally they were confidently affirmed to be cannibals.

QUOTE 2: they had laid Kurrichane in ruins and scattered the Barolong, and in addition were said to be cannibals !

QUOTE 3: they rapidly disappeared, and it was subsequently discovered that whole clans of them were seized and devoured by the cannibals of the mountains.

Cannibalism was also a reality in Africa. However in the US, this mention might be seen as ‘hate speech’!

QUOTE: but the most skilful smiths of all South Africa
END OF QUOTE

It may be noted that in South Asia, the smiths and carpenters who were quite skilled, belonged to the lower caste stature. However, if they had been allowed entry into the US or England, they would have most surely taken-over the local trades in their respective skills. For the cost benefit was astronomically in their favour. However, in the South Asian locality, the higher classes who know what is what do not give them this advantage.

Verbal codes hold them powerfully in demeaned slots, from which their very attempt to communicate on a level of equality with stature with the social and governmental higher-ups would smack of great impertinence, and much more. At the same time, the higher ups are also part of the same mental codes. Their long-term ambition would be to cast the same strangling net among the native-English posterity.

QUOTE 1: They were evidently in a far more defenceless state than the stronger tribes, and generally in a more degraded condition, many of them being reduced to such a state of abject serfdom that they were perfectly at the command of their exacting and more powerful neighbours. Such a condition would appear to indicate that they are the descendants of a conquered race

QUOTE 2: we shall find that they fraternised more closely with the aboriginal occupiers of the soil, who extended to them a sort of rude hospitality and showed towards them a friendliness of disposition in marked contrast to the hostile and vindictive feelings which were subsequently aroused by the monopolising and grasping appropriation of the finest portions of their country by the formidable multitudes of armed warriors who followed with their numerous herds upon the trail of the pioneers.
END OF QUOTE

England has to be careful that its posterity does not get converted into the descendants of a conquered race.

The pioneer invaders from other nations who have arrived in England ‘fraternised more closely with the aboriginal occupiers’ of England. There are ‘formidable multitudes of armed warriors who will follow with their numerous herds upon the trail of the pioneers’ into England. Once this happens, the native-English will be dealing with another kind of population/s which they never had the experience of dealing with before.

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QUOTE: they seem to supply a proof that locality is not always sufficient to account for difference in races.
END OF QUOTEs

In South Asia also, in the same geographical setting, various different populations groups of unknown origin and homelands did live in close physical proximity, with various kinds of emotions to each other, including those of repulsion as well as reverence.

QUOTE 1: If they killed an elephant, the tusks had to be carried to their feudal masters.

QUOTE 2: They were not permitted to wear jackals' skins, or any dress which indicated rank or fortune ; they could only use such skins as were not worn by the rich.

QUOTE 3: but also that of two well-marked grades — they might almost be termed castes, so clearly and so strongly defined are these two divisions — into which the members of the various tribes are separated, that distinctly indicate the presence of the descendants of not only a conquering but a conquered race also amongst them. Natives of the lower grade were despised by those of the higher, and one of the latter intermarrying with one of the former would certainly have lost caste in the eyes of his more exclusive countrymen.
END OF QUOTEs

The above-mentioned information can point to a feudal language social ambience and the presence of powerful caste systems. However, there can be other regimentations also. However, the emotions and sense given in the above words are strikingly similar to that in South Asia.

QUOTE: There are, he writes, two grades, the rich, who are hereditary chiefs, and the poor. The latter continue in the same condition, and their lot is a comparatively easy kind of vassalage. Their lives are something like those of their dogs, hunger and idleness, but they are the property of their respective chiefs, and their forefathers have from time immemorial been at the mercy of their lords.
END OF QUOTE

It is easy to say that these things were there in England also, on simply hearing that England also had a feudal system. The fact is, English feudalism is not what was experienced in Celtic language areas of Britain. Nor was it similar to the feudalism in Continental Europe. In a similar way, the feudalism in Asia and Africa also was quite different from that of English feudalism.

English feudalism will be very, very refined and bearable compared to what was the state of feudalism in other locations. Wherever feudal languages were spoken, the feudalism will be terrible. And where the feudal codes very terrible, the feudalism will also be quite terrible. Moreover, in all locations where the communication is in feudal languages, even if the place is democratic and liberal in statutory terms, the people would live under terribly oppressive hierarchies.

QUOTE: Preferring the liberty of the desert, they would make any sacrifice to please their often distant superiors rather than be confined to the irksomeness of a town life, to which such is their aversion that, as Mr. Moffat states, he has known chiefs take armed men and travel a hundred miles into desert places, in order to bring back Balala whom they wished to assist in watching and harvesting the gardens of their wives.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement literally displays the desperate desire of the underclass people/s to escape from the clutches of their landlord oppressors. In a way, when England ditched the peoples of South Asia and handed them back to the likes of fiends like Nehru, Gandhi etc. they were being handed back to the same social system, wherein a huge section of the populations lived like slaves of officialdom and the landlord classes. For more on this, Click here.

QUOTE: During the chieftainship of Mokgosi, the Barolong chief demanded from him the breast of every ox killed by his people, the brisket being considered among the native races as food which ought to be set apart for the special use of chiefs, a demand, therefore, which if complied with would have been a virtual acknowledgment of the dependence of himself and his people on the Barolong. It being persisted in, the indignant Mokgosi at length replied, "Am I then your servant ? "
END OF QUOTE

What is worth mentioning here is not the obvious caste system and possible presence of feudal languages, but the fact that inside feudal languages, there are minute hints that enforce powerful social regimentation and acknowledge explicit domination.

QUOTE 1: but no sooner had they arrived there and made the discovery that there were other tribes not only rich in cattle, but also less warlike than themselves, than they at once made an attempt to commence the same system of strife and spoliation from which they themselves had attempted to escape.

QUOTE 2: broke away from the sanguinary yoke of Tshaka to commence for themselves a career which was to be marked, like that of the master whom they had deserted, with atrocious cruelties and remorseless bloodshedding.
END OF QUOTEs

There is a statement in The REV. SAMUEL MATEER’s NATIVE LIFE IN TRAVANCORE: ‘Yet Ilavars and Chogans were, and still are in most parts, similarly driven out of the way by Brahmans. Missionaries have pleaded the cause of all classes alike, and to a large extent succeeded in procuring the emancipation of Shanars and Ilavars from such bonds, but as soon as one caste has somewhat risen from their degradation they inflict similar indignities upon their inferiors,.......’

This again could be a sign of the presence of feudal languages in the local communication system.

QUOTE: The Bushmen of the country had, according to Moffat, kept up a constant predatory warfare with the Bachoana from time immemorial, upon whom they wreaked their vengeance whenever an occasion offered.
END OF QUOTE

No COMMENT

QUOTE: tame Bushmen in their service,
END OF QUOTE

The word ‘tame’ literally points to the feeling that the Bushmen were some kind of animals, which could be domesticated.

QUOTE: On returning from the slaughter, all the circumstances attending it were related at a pitso, or general meeting, after which men and women dispersed over the town, imitating the screams of those persons who had been killed, repeating their expressions of terror, and representing their actions when begging for their lives.
END OF QUOTE

I feel that this is an evidence of the basic brutal nature of the social system and its people. I have seen similar behaviour in India, even though the incidences were not connected to outright murder or massacre.

QUOTE 1: This was evidently the natural effect or reaction of the inherent cowardice of these untutored savages, great in courage when they found they had an enemy weaker than themselves, and whom they had overpowered by stratagem or surprise, when nothing but dabbling in the blood of their helpless victims, women and children, seemed to satisfy them.

QUOTE 2: I know you, ye Batlapin, at home and in the face of women ye are men, but in the face of an enemy ye are women, ever ready to flee when ye should stand firm.
END OF QUOTE

Again the evidence of low quality human populations. In South Asia, the nations are extraordinarily brave when dealing with adversaries who are militarily weak.

QUOTE: At the conclusion of this speech the air was rent with acclamations, the whole assembly occasionally joining in the dance, the women frequently taking the weapons out of the hands of the men and brandishing them in the most violent manner ; and people of all ages continued using the most extravagant and frantic gestures for nearly two hours. Notwithstanding this sudden outburst of popular enthusiasm, however, great uneasiness prevailed, and everything was prepared for instant flight if it should be necessary.
END OF QUOTE

Cruel to those who are weak, but quite weaklings when they have to face a tough adversary!

QUOTE: The women were seen in little groups surrounded by these barbarians, who were tearing away beads and brass rings from their necks and arms. A woman was holding out her arms to one of these ruffians, in order that the bracelets might be taken off, but not being able to effect his purpose quickly, the savage cut off both her arms with a battle-axe, and then dispatched her.
END OF QUOTE

Non-English military endeavours are full of similar actions. Looting and molesting of the civil population is the norm. This has taken place during the Indo-Pak war in East Pakistan (currently Bangladesh). The Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka was also mentioned as indulging in similar actions on the Sri Lankan Tamils.

QUOTE: Thus numerous as the Bachoana had become, they fell an easy prey to every enemy who chose to invade their country, while their accumulated herds afforded the most insatiate marauders ample spoil.
END OF QUOTE

More or less the state of current-day England with regard to outsiders and what was inside the nation for them to spoil.

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QUOTE 1: Many of the Mantatees were suffering dreadfully from want ; even in the heat of the battle the poorer class seized pieces of meat and devoured them raw.

QUOTE 2: Some were found literally feasting on the dead bodies of their companions.
END OF QUOTE

The basic savagery of the social system, in which the poor were deprived of everything they required to subsist upon decently.

QUOTE: An immense precipice, which crested a hill near his great-place, became the terror of all those who excited his displeasure, the Tarpeian rock over which his victims were hurled, and these not in isolated cases, but frequently, in considerable numbers. His victims, without distinction of either sex or age, were driven shrieking in a crowd over the dizzy edge, while a heap of bleaching bones accumulated at its foot, to mark the implacability of his wrath.
END OF QUOTE

Barbarity as an effective tool of disciplining inside feudal language social systems.

QUOTE 1: The greater number of these unfortunate wretches appeared in a most miserable plight for want of food. They were reduced to eat their dogs, cowdung, and, in fact, what could no longer be a matter of doubt, they were found devouring their own dead

QUOTE 2: The horrid extremities to which some of these retreating fugitives were reduced is related by Mr. Hodgson, when he describes how horror-struck he was upon discovering two women and a man concealed in a bush in the act of cooking a human leg ; near them was found the skeleton of a full-grown man and part of the body of another, of which a leg and an arm had been cut off, the head opened, the bowels drawn out, and the internal parts of the body exposed to view. One of the women was roasting part of the leg upon the coals, and the other was engaged with the man in eating with savage greediness the portion which had just been cooked, the man breaking the bones with a stone, and sucking them with apparent delight.
END OF QUOTE

No comment

QUOTE: At this time another terror was growing upon them, and they were living in fear lest Moselekatze should one day make them captives.
END OF QUOTE

The terror of local slavery is everywhere there in this book.

QUOTE: They were no sooner rid of their great common enemy, than the former system of never-ending raids and petty wars and struggles for the possession of cattle once more commenced among them, and continued without intermission until the Boers, pressing in from the south, forcibly subjected all those who came within their reach, and occupied the country.
END OF QUOTE

The Boers were just another barbarian tribe. But then they had centuries of experience of being in close proximity to England. That does change their mental demeanour.

QUOTE: A living child, frightfully emaciated, with a large wound in her left side, was found crouching near a door of a hut. The wound had been made by ravens attacking her. She was a girl of about seven years of age. A bare skeleton lay near her, the bones of her sister, who had died of starvation. She had survived for eighteen days, when she was found contending with three hungry dogs and some crows picking bones ! This was the town where Sabbedere and his people were attacked.
END OF QUOTE

The realities of savage locations. More or less similar things have had happened in South Asia, till the advent of the English East India Company establishments in the location. Burning to ashes of live women, human sacrifices, burying alive of little children, impaling of human beings on high structures, wooden stocking, imprisoning of lower caste men and women in animal cages for days and on &c. The issue in South Asia was that human cruelty was so common that till the English rule arrived, no one really cared about these everyday events. If and when similar things happened in England, they were treated as so shocking that they became historical records.

QUOTE: While these latter have always considered themselves Griquas, the larger portion of those now included under this designation were formerly called Bastaards, a name which, however distasteful to European notions, was one of which they were originally particularly proud.
END OF QUOTE

To the downtrodden populations, these kinds of connections might have had the effect social up-lifting.


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Post posted by VED »

c25 #
COLONIAL EFFECT


QUOTE: The same one-sided way of bartering appears to have continued until 1685, when the Governor, Van der Stel, visited the Namaqua clans himself, hoping in his progress to discover gold or silver, and to reach Vigiti Magna. But he failed to attain either of these objects. He displayed such an amount of overbearing cruelty towards the victimised Namaqua that they rose in self-defence, and he was forced to make a somewhat hasty retreat..
END OF QUOTE

Continental European attitude in the colonial times were markedly different from that of the native-English. However, the native-English were entwined with the Celtic language speakers. To this extent, the British colonial rule had this negativity.

QUOTE: In less than a century the original inhabitants had dwindled to four hordes, who were in a great measure subservient to the Dutch.
END OF QUOTE

Connecting to Continental Europeans was not a very good idea. England should have borne this in mind before connecting itself to Europe. After fighting two huge wars to keep out Europe, only an utter foolish British policymaker would have allowed this to happen.

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QUOTE: In the same manner, should we meet a Kaffir priding himself in the name of Klaas, Piet, or Jantje, we should imagine that either he or his friends who gave him the cognomen had been in the service of the Dutch ; whereas if he were known as Tom, Dick, John, or Jim, we should say that he must have been at one time under an influence decidedly English.
END OF QUOTE

In the South Asian subcontinent also, the natives who got connected to the various Continental European trade endeavours and Christianity, and to the English rule and English Christianity, did display similar kind of name changes and additions. The curious issue here is the native feudal higher classes never allowed their subordinated classes to assume their name. In fact, they would take much effort to see that the children of their serfs and slaves got terrible, ugly and stinking names. There are certain other things also worth mentioning in this context.

The many lower castes converted into Christianity under the aegis of the London Missionary Society and such others in Travancore. They changed their names to Christian ones. However, the local upper classes did not allow them to forgo their traditional lower caste identity, which was to be appended to their new names. However, the London Missionary Society was able to force the government to remove this stigma.

In a way it was a great removal of a social shackle. But then, the other side of the event was that the new generations of such Christians do not know that they are the descendants of the erstwhile very low castes. If at all they are aware of it, they do not want to have it mentioned. Their social emancipation happened through the endeavours of the native-English government in British-India, which continually had exerted pressure upon the Travancore kingdom give liberty to the lower classes. However, as of now, they all have full belief that the ‘nation’ had been exploited by the English. That is what the current-day social, political and academic leaders teach them.

There are plenty of these Christians who have immigrated to native-English nations, as various kinds of workers, including nurses and doctors. It is doubtful if anyone of them would be mentioning the gratitude their families need to have for England. Instead of that, what would mostly come out of their mouths would be that the English are racists, and that they need to be taught a lesson.

QUOTE: We have already noticed the repeated onslaughts made upon them by the Bangwaketse and other tribes, when they, in their turn, retaliated by making reprisals, until they became comparatively a warlike people.
END OF QUOTE

The same is the change in the offing for the native-English. Actually they were the most refined people in the world. However, as of now, their land is filled with people from all over the world. These people who have swarmed in are not at all any kind of refined people, even though they might act in a holier-than-thou attitude over there. For instance, the peoples who have swarmed in from South Asia. In their native lands, they cannot even stand in a queue. Their languages are feudal and contain terrific pejorative words, for various kinds of professions which are basically decent jobs in England.

When the native-English go on reacting to these sinister double and multiple minded outsiders, they will also change slowly. They will change from their innate soft features to that of rude ruffians. Indeed, current-day native-English females would find it quite difficult to adopt their original feminine qualities. For, in the presence of feudal language speakers in the social system, all softness becomes a weakness. Women will adopt into rough demeanour.

QUOTE: Hordes of whose existence they had been previously ignorant burst suddenly upon them, completely annihilating many of their numerous clans, and driving the remainder a mingled crowd of wretched panic-stricken fugitives headlong from the country.
END OF QUOTE

When the populations of Asia, South Asia, Continental Europe, Africa, South America &c. burst into England in their full native demeanour, what the native-English would experience would be somewhat similar to what has been described above.

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QUOTE: The Matabili, he writes, were not satisfied with simply capturing cattle, nothing less than the entire subjugation or destruction of the vanquished could quench their insatiable thirst for power. Thus whenever they captured a town, the terrified inhabitants were driven in a mass to the outskirts, when the parents and all the married women were slaughtered on the spot. Such as had dared to be brave in the defence of their town with their wives and their children were reserved for a still more terrible death : dry grass saturated with fat was tied round their naked bodies, and then set on fire.

The youths and girls were loaded as beasts of burden with the spoils of the town, to be marched to the home of the victors. If the town were in an isolated position, the helpless infants were left to perish either with hunger or to be devoured by beasts of prey. On such an event the lions scented the slain, and left their lair. The hyenas and jackals emerged from their lurking places in broad day, and revelled in the carnage, while clouds of vultures were to be seen descending on the living and the dead, and holding a carnival on human flesh.

Should a suspicion arise in the savage breast that there was a chance that the helpless infants might possibly fall into the hands of some of their friends, they prevented this by collecting them into a fold, and after raising over them a pile of brushwood applied the flaming torch to it, when the fold, the town, and all it contained, so lately a scene of mirth, became a heap of ashes.
END OF QUOTE

If at any tragic time in history, England is over run by the feudal language speaking national armies, it would be quite foolish to expect the encroachers to act as per the tenets of the Geneva Convention. When the Tamil nation in north Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was over-run by the Sri Lankan army, it is more or less certain that the Tamil leaders were tortured to death, after the surrendered. Even the women folks who were captured were sexually used and murdered.

Indian armed forces do not follow the Geneva Convention rules when it captures the various rebel forces who are seeking freedom from India, or fighting for social rights. Men are generally tortured and the women would naturally be used otherwise. Even from inside India, no one would dare to take up these things to any judicial authority, nor would Indian officials allow it.

Basically the tenets of the Geneva Conventions fetter only native-English nations. For, their own citizens do not have much fear of their own uniformed services. However, in feudal language nations, the people cannot even address a government official as an equal.

QUOTE: has assured the writer that during that trip for six weeks he never met a single living human being ; nothing was to be seen but the charred remains of numerous towns or kraals, strewn with skulls and other human bones, while for long distances thickly-spread lines of bleaching bones were frequently met with, marking the spots where the wretched fugitives had been overtaken by their savage and pitiless pursuers, to whom mercy was unknown.
END OF QUOTE

It might be good for England to bear in mind that the basic native instincts of the various populations of all skin colours that enter into their lands are similar to what has been described above – ‘savage and pitiless, to whom mercy was unknown’. It would be quite unwise to focus just upon one single religious entity.

QUOTE: The Namaqua, like the rest of their race, were divided into a variety of separate clans governed by a chief whose authority was very circumscribed and precarious. The existence of such a number of subdivisions to the north of the Orange river would suggest the idea that in addition to those who managed to escape from the pressure of the advancing Europeans by recrossing it, some portion of them had in all probability always remained there, and thus preserved the herds of cattle which were so much coveted by the Dutch. In the south, those who had remained behind in the kraals bordering on the Colony had been long ago exterminated or reduced into servitude by the Boers.
END OF QUOTE

The Dutch and the Germans who might most probably make up the Boers were typically like the rest of the Continental European colonialists. They were bent upon empire building. It is quite funny that England was not on any empire building pursuits, but still ended up creating the best Empire, this earth has seen in recorded history of human beings.


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c26 #
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY


QUOTE: In 1800, when their first missionary, Mr. Anderson, went among them, they were a horde of wandering naked savages, subsisting by plunder and the chase. Their bodies were daubed with red paint, their heads loaded with grease and shining powder, with no covering but the filthy kaross over their shoulders. Without knowledge, without morals, or any trace of civilisation, they were wholly abandoned to witchcraft, drunkenness, licentiousness, and all the consequences which arise from the unchecked growth of such vices.
END OF QUOTE

This might be what the London Missionary Society saw in Africa. What these missionaries saw and experienced over there cannot be fully understood unless the exact social structure as designed by the language codes is understood. In Travancore kingdom, just outside British-India in South Asia, the London Missionary Society did experience something similar. However, in that location, it was the lower castes who were kept as some kind of cattle class by the land owning feudal higher classes.

QUOTE: They were in many instances little above the brutes. It is a fact that we were among them at the hazard of our lives. This became evident to us from their own acknowledgment to us afterwards, they having confessed that they had frequently premeditated to take away our lives, and were prevented only from executing their purposes by what they now consider an Almighty power.
END OF QUOTE

The above is the words of missionary Anderson, probably of the London Missionary Society. It is curious that almost the same thing is happening in England and all other native-English nations. The feudal language populations who have barged in are uttering totally carnivorous verbal codes upon the native-English populations. And the latter have no information of this. For, they cannot conceive of a possibility that language codes or words have such demonic powers. Actually, I have mentioned almost the very same ideas that missionary Anderson has said in my book Shrouded Satanism in feudal languages, published in 2013. See these Quotes from that book:

QUOTE from Shrouded Satanism 1: Now, what about the issue of what these dogs are having in their mind? Well, what they do translate into English is understandable. However what they leave out in the translation, no human being can understand.

What they plan among themselves will and, despoil and ennoble humans within the creepy confines of their own mental process would remain hidden from the human beings of England. For most of these emotions won’t have any equivalent in human emotions. Like the word eda and edi in Tamil / Malayalam. They cannot be translated into English. For such beastly emotions are not there in English language and social intelligence. END OF QUOTE

QUOTE from Shrouded Satanism 2: When speaking about the affectionate stance of the feudal language speaking teachers, the experience would be confounding due to the extremely warm and affectionate posture they put on. It would be quite disarming. Yet, the exterior posture of affection is just a veneer and a facade. It is like the action of the butchers patting and fondling the cows as they wait for the sharpened knives to slice them.

In fact, feudal language-speakers do slice the individuality of the native-English kids in private conversations in their native languages. The society also gets sliced and splintered into various pieces and packed and positioned in various locations in the virtual arena. END OF QUOTE

QUOTE: This of course cannot be wondered at when we take into consideration the diverse and almost antagonistic elements of which this tribe was composed.
END OF QUOTE

The above words are about the Griquas, whom the London Missionary Society was creating into a population group.

QUOTE: while, from a negrophilist point of view, it afforded the long desired opportunity to start a politico-religious community freed from the trammels of outside control, to build up a separate national existence under purely missionary influences under the patronage of a Society, whose well-meaning but frequently, through ignorance and inexperience, misguided interference has entailed an unmitigated increase of evil in almost every portion of the globe where they have intermeddled.
END OF QUOTE

It was the London Missionary Society, which took up pioneering work in the Travancore kingdom in South Asia, to liberate the various lower caste populations from the slavery. Many of these slave populations had been kept like the cattle in the households and agricultural areas of the landlord populations.

When these slave classes were improved, the question arose as to what to do with them. They were not liked in Travancore much and they could not be given social freedom, which would definitely disturb the higher class families, their females and children. Moreover, the traditional upper class Christian group which had arrived many centuries ago from Syria, did not want to get connected to this lower caste Christians.

The new Christian religious leadership took to deliberate planning to get the new Christians to encroach upon the forest lands of Malabar which was in the nation of British-India. In the initial years, this was done in a very slow manner, for the British-Indian forest department was quite efficient. However, in the breakdown of official machinery in the immediate aftermath of the formation of India, these new Christians moved in huge numbers into the forests of Malabar.

When this issue was to become a law and order issue, due to the fact that people from another state was encroaching and occupying forest lands in the Madras state, a huge political conspiracy was enacted and Malabar district of Madras State was connected to Travancore state and a new Indian state was formed. So that now, the encroachment was now by people from the same state.

These new settlers were well-equipped in various kinds of knowledge given to them by the London Missionary Society as well as their own church. They had the knowledge of making guns and use of gunpowder. They came into the Malabar forests, burned down the trees and created fabulous plantations. At the same time, the local peoples of Malabar were shackled by their own respect for British-Indian rule of law.

Animals in the forest such as deer, porcupine, wild boar, monkey etc. were shot down and literally exterminated from the location. The traditional forest populations in these areas also faced regular bouts of molestation from these encroachers.

So in the ultimate count, the actions of London Missionary Society had a double edge. But then, the blame should not to be placed upon them, in this case. The fiends who created the mess called India, Pakistan and Bangladesh was Clement Atlee and his Labour Party.

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QUOTE: To attempt to establish a history for a race which, from the remotest ages, has been unable to build up a history for itself, must, one is inclined to believe, always prove a failure ; and to expect to turn men who have just been emancipated from the oppressions of generations, and from the debasement and degradation of serfdom and slavery, suddenly into a race of noble-minded patriots, can be an idea entertained only by enthusiastic visionaries, who hope for miracles in utter defiance of all the experience of past history.
END OF QUOTE

The above words are about London Missionary Society actions to improve the Griquas. However, the same words can be said about various other locations and peoples who had been improved by the English colonial activities. Improving them all a bit and then letting them loose into the hands of their own traditional feudal language speaking low-quality political leaders was a very horrible thing to do. In Africa, London Missionary Society collaborating with non-English European agencies and populations was also a very horrible thing.

QUOTE 1: The name Kok, i.e. Cook, was said to have been derived from the circumstance of one of the progenitors of the family having served as a cook to one of the old Dutch governors.

QUOTE 2: Barend Barends was in those days so far a chief that he had received a staff of office, similar to that bestowed upon the Koks and other native captains, showing that his position was recognised by the constituted authorities of the period.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very curious statement. For, I have seen more or less similar things that happened in British-Malabar in South Asia. Some individuals of the lower caste Matriarchal Thiyya population in Tellicherry worked as cooks and other household servants inside English households. Some used the title of ‘Butler’ as a suffix to their names. Naturally a suffix in the local feudal language becomes a title of ‘respect’, which others have to express with their own servility. This title naturally became social positions and these title holders naturally became social leaders and rich persons.

QUOTE: Although of mixed descent, he was originally a slave, but by dint of industry he was able to collect a sufficient sum to purchase his freedom and subsequently to procure a farm among the colonists of the Cape.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very interesting statement about the slavery over there. In the South Asian subcontinent, usually the slave classes cannot come out of their slavery by any means. They were treated as semi-humans or half-animals, or as cattle. However, in the rich Muslim households, who buy and bring in slaves from elsewhere the slaves not treated as totally lowly. Many of them become close associates of their masters. However, these slaves are different from low caste traditional slaves, who remain as cattle, even to the rich Muslim households also, unless they are converted into Islam.

Another thing to note is that in the traditional slavery of South Asia, no records are kept about the traditional slaves. They are treated as cattle, and when their ownership is transferred from one owner to another, it is just like cattle being transferred. As such, it is very difficult to find any written records of any specific slave or slaves, to be found in Travancore or Malabar, or elsewhere in South Asia.

QUOTE: He was acknowledged by the existing government as the successor of his father, and thus entrusted with the staff of office, possessing horses and firearms and flocks of almost patriarchal size, one of the primitive tokens of immense wealth, he must undoubtedly have appeared as a great man in the eyes of the natives among whom he travelled.
END OF QUOTE.

This is about Cornelius Kok. In feudal languages, even though the social system can be quite divisive, cunning and mutually antagonistic, the appearance of a commonly accepted leader can create a very powerful focal point inside the social machinery. This is a very critical information to be borne in mind, when moving along the lines of social engineering.

QUOTE: We are assured that the Griqua chiefs of the infant settlement always treated the Bushmen with consideration and kindness. Of this we shall have better means of judging as we proceed, and shall discover that this kindness was strikingly exemplified by depriving the latter of the last vestige of their lands and giving them in exchange a few cattle to live upon, as if the men of this wild hunter-race, who rejoiced m the untrammelled freedom of the mighty plains by which they were surrounded, could be suddenly turned, by a feat akin to legerdemain, into mere cattle-herds !
END OF QUOTE

This is a very powerful information, generally about all social systems, wherein the English colonial rule handed over the power to the local politicians. In India, a huge percent of the populations cannot afford a bank savings account. A business account is too expensive. Very few can use the digital technology. The classes who have all this, would not like to see the currently deprived classes to get these capabilities. For, in a feudal language social system, it would be quite dangerous.

The most funny thing is that it is these very fiendish upper classes of South Asia who are populating the native-English nations. Once they get the upper hand over there, God save the native-English populations! Otherwise they are doomed to be the under classes of the feudal language speakers.

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QUOTE: If we unhesitatingly condemn the Boer for his unprincipled conduct in dispossessing a kraal of Hottentots, how can we heap praise upon the Griquas and their supporters, who in an equally unjustifiable manner despoiled a considerable number of independent clans of the aborigines of their ancient territorial possessions.

At the commencement they merely took possession of the localities they positively occupied, they felt that others had still some right to occupy the intervening tracts of country. It was only as they began to feel the strength which their superior weapons gave them, that more ambitious ideas dawned upon the minds of the Griquatown authorities, and they began to lord it over the territories and persons of their weaker neighbours.?
END OF QUOTE

The above words are actually for the native-English to ponder upon. The outsiders, Continental Europeans, the Asians, the South Asians, the South Americans, the African blacks &c. arrive in England with a most affable demeanour. They know their limits and they appreciate their luck to be in England or in any other native-English nation. However, the moment they get the information that they are established inside, then they are another team of people. In their native language codes, the native-English go down in each of the verbal codes.

QUOTE: In the present instance, Waterboer's previous missionary training and proclivities evidently marked him as a man fit to carry out the missionary Utopian idea of laying the foundation, under their own special priestly guidance, of a model kingdom of “regenerated natives."
END OF QUOTE

It is not easy to find fault with the aims of the London Missionary Society. However, unless the regenerated natives are slowly brought out of their native feudal languages and converted into pristine-English of the Victorian-age times, the regenerated natives will return back to their native savagery in no time. For their savagery would be encoded inside their language codes.

Moreover, it would be a very healthy thing to keep the administration under the native-English. Fair-play would work out, if this native-English is given an apartheid in the sense that they have some place where they are among themselves. Into this place, even the Continental Europeans should not be allowed in. If they are allowed, the whole idea would fall down.

QUOTE: some of Waterboer's principal men disregarded the injunction and plundered some Korana villages. He seized six of the ringleaders, summoned his council, and tried, condemned, and publicly executed them all. This produced an insurrection, and the insurgents twice attacked Griquatown.
END OF QUOTE

The fact is that inside feudal languages, powerful loyalties build up in a kind of pyramid manner. These loyalties are beyond the realm of any sensible reasoning, or thoughts of a wider good. This is an essential item that cannot be understood by the native-English. It is not that the native-English do not have loyalties, but that there are no loyalties created by feudal language codes.

In the above instance, one cannot be judgemental about anything. For, there might be very powerful verbal code information that has not entered into the text.

QUOTE: but constantly gave evidence of crumbling to pieces from its own inherent weakness.
END OF QUOTE.

The above statement is about Griquas. However, the deeper issue is that in feudal languages, there are various routes and pathways of obeisance, respect, servility, command and obedience &c. In social engineering, this aspect should be very carefully understood. However, in native-English lands, this information is not there.

For, the moment a population speaks good quality English (not the feudal English, spoken in India &c.), the various mutually unacceptable loyalty routes &c. gets erased. Communication becomes straight, direct and planar. Most of the irksome human emotional triggers vanish. But always beware a bilingual multiculture individual, unless the other language is also planar.

QUOTE: To this a rider was added that he should also protect the Bushmen.
END OF QUOTE.

This was the agreement that Dr. Philip had with Kok, the ex-chief of Griquatown, on his being allowed to settle with his people at the mission station of Philippolis. It is continuously seen that the native-English had a wider vision for South Africa. In that they wanted to protect the original natives of the land.

QUOTE: the bond of union was the appearance of a common enemy, which forced all those threatened to act in unison.
END OF QUOTE.

This is mentioned in regard to the Griquas. However, this is something that can be mentioned about many other nationalities. Even Europe is going through this phase in pieces as of now. The so-called threat of Islam is one item that is uniting the peoples across the national borders. Even nationalists from England and their traditional Continental European enemy nations are getting united in this issue. There is no other logic for this unity.


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c27 #
MISCELLANEOUS


QUOTE: From this description, the people alluded to would appear to have belonged to one of the Portuguese settlements, and the articles named were such as the Portuguese might have introduced from India.
END OF QUOTE

The use of the word India does create a lot of problems nowadays. When this word was used in this book, it must have been intended to mean a place inside a geographical location – the South Asian Subcontinent. However, as of now, this word simply creates confusion.

For, there is indeed a new nation called India, which is very cunningly trying to grab all the antiquities that come with the word ‘India’. The word ‘India’ is itself not a native word in the subcontinent. May be it must have been used by various maritime merchants to mean a location. However, it was the Continental Europeans who went around trying to create a well-defined location to connect to the word ‘India’. As a historical fact, they did create four different ‘Indias’, I think.

If this word India is not there in the local epics (puranas), Vedic literature dating back some more than four thousand years (not exactly connected to the current-day peoples of India, Pakistan or Bangladesh), histories of the Mogul kings, and various other kingdoms of the location, then what is the other word that was used locally to mean the whole of the subcontinent?

Well, even though the current-day jingoistic historians of India would be ready to produce a few words that they would claim did define the whole of the subcontinent, it might be true that there was no such national feeling that connected the whole of the Subcontinent as one nation or population.

It is indeed true that the peoples were different from each other, not only between the different locations, but also amongst the different population groups, right inside each minor kingdom inside the subcontinent. It was the handiwork of the English East India Company that created a single nation feeling in around half of the subcontinent and beyond.

QUOTE: during the whole time continually pronouncing, or rather singing, the following words, Hei pruah pr'hari'ka, 'hei fruah fhei, 'hei pruah 'ha. Of the words they did not know the meaning, but said that some of their tribe, together with the game, had learnt them from the tribes a great way to the north."
END OF QUOTE

I have personally seen and taken part in interior village games (in South Asia) similar to these games, in which the words recited, would have verbal meanings, but would not have any great sensible meanings for the whole sentence.

QUOTE:
Notes: Since writing the above, Miss Lucy C. Lloyd has given the following description of a game of skill played by the Bushmen living to the north-east of Damaraland : " It is played with a kind of shuttlecock, i.e. with a short stick with two or three feathers tied to its upper end, and weighted at its lower extremity by a berry or a button attached to it. This is thrown into the air, and beaten with another stick, to keep it up, time after time, much as a shuttlecock should be kept up (in the game of battledore and shuttlecock)."

Miss Lloyd's Bushman authorities assured her that this is one of the old games played by members of their tribe in their own land. This discovery is an interesting one, as tending to prove that this popular game of English children is probably one (by being thus known to so primitive a race as the Bushmen) of high antiquity.
END OF QUOTE

It is a very curious instance. In my schooldays in South Asia, the teachers and certain others used to make categorical mentions that the English game of Cricket was actually a modernisation of a game using sticks which was played in the villages hereabout. However, the wider information that the great attraction of Cricket is a set of rules and etiquettes of behaviour that makes it a Gentlemen’s game. Off course, there is the other unmentionable attraction that playing this game would immediately connect the players to Englishmen in a mental ambience.

England was off course insane to continue to play this game with the low class nations of the Commonwealth, who are generally teaching their citizens that England was a very bad nation. In India, people are very wary of playing with or getting connected to persons of questionable or dubious, or low social standards, even if they come dressed in finery and pretended refinement. The issue of ‘pretension’ is a very active one in feudal languages. Persons can don different stances in an artificial manner. However this facade gets erased the moment the requirement for the pretence vanishes.

QUOTE: Although since 1813 the whole of them have adopted the appellation of Griqua, a large majority of them were not only descendants of the Hottentot tribe we have mentioned but of the Dutch colonists also.
END OF QUOTE
No comment

QUOTE: many old cattle enclosures built of stone, some parts as neatly done as if they had been erected by European workmen.
END OF QUOTE

The above statement is full of technical errors. What European workmen can accomplish, the native-English workmen can do with equal or better acumen. And the Asian and African workers also can do the same, if the same tools are given and they are trained to work in an equivalent social ambience. However, handing over great tools and weapons to barbarian populations is dangerous for the animals and human beings who come under their control. That is what native-English nations should have been careful about. They were not careful.

And now, both human beings as well as animals suffer under barbarian people all over the world.


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c28 #
SOCIAL ENGINEERING


My commentary as yet has not addressed the terrible social issues cropping up in present-day South Africa. This book, THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA, does not come anywhere near to the present-day social scenario that South Africa presents. In fact, one would be struck with wonderment on contemplating upon how the nation moved so fast to such a totally different scenario. I feel that the 2nd World War and the utterly foolish dismantling of the English Empire are two most powerful items that changed the world so much.

Even though technology has moved forward much, the world is in a more barbarian mental state. Not only human beings, but even animals are in dire straits all over the globe, with the empowerment of utterly inhuman human populations. In fact, technology has given added powers to the barbarian and inhuman populations. In their locations, both human populations as well as animals that are in their clutches are in a terrible condition.

In spite of all these horrendous situations, I do sense that there is indeed a way to move the world to a better level. The foundations of my thoughts are connected to certain things I know about languages. Even though there is a general attitude that languages are ‘mere languages’, it is my observation that languages are the very powerful software that designs, maintains and runs so many things connected to human beings as well as other living beings. I do not want to go into the reasons and logic of why I came to this conclusion. For, it is a very big theme.

I started writing on this theme way back in 1989 and it came out in my first major book: March of the Evil Empires; English versus the feudal languages! That book was far from perfect. But then over the years, I have written a few more books on this theme. They are listed below. They can be downloaded from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS’ Website.

2. SHROUDED SATANISM in FEUDAL LANGUAGES!

3. Software codes of Reality, Life and Languages!

4. Codes of reality! What is language?

5. The Machinery of Homœopathy!

6. Software codes of mantra, tantra, witchcraft, black magic, evil eye, evil tongue &c.

7. The tragic consequences of teaching Hindi in Australia!

8. PRISTINE-ENGLISH! What is different about it?

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Some of these books are quite readable. A few are a bit tough or roundabout. Interested readers can also read the chapter on feudal languages, I have given in my Commentary on MALABAR MANUAL by William Logan.

However, the best thing to do would be follow my posts on this Telegram Channel:. This is actually a continuing writing on South Asia. However, in this writing a lot of others things including feudal languages, codes of reality, software codes of life, software codes of mantra, tantra &c., brain software &c. are propounded in a very slow-paced manner.

The world requires a solution for the state of continuous belligerence it faces. There are other issues also. Such as the mindset of certain populations to outbreed everyone else. The issue of racism. The issue of certain populations being quite repulsive. The issue of certain populations’ or sections’ of populations body language as well as facial demeanour causing mental aversion. Issues of mixing with other populations creating personality erosion. Feeling that when working among certain populations, or under certain populations, one’s individuality is being crushed. The need to be distant from people or populations who are an eyesore and also a cause of mental distaste. And such other similar things.

These mentioned things are real. They are not what the quack sciences known as psychology and psychiatry call mental issues or mental disease. Emotions are real. Emotional distress is also real. There are reasons behind each of these things. One cannot simply wish them away.

When non-English individuals say something if a native-English individual gets distressed without any tangible reason, the reality might be that there was actually something totally bad in the speech of the non-English individuals. However, the native-Englishman has no means to define or explain what actually distressed him.

Well, why I am saying all this is that I stand on the other side of the fence. That is on the non-English side. However, I can understand and sense the English mentality also. That is not by means of mere language knowing, but by knowing what it is that is different about English; and what is eerie in feudal languages.

Since I cannot explain away huge contents of information connected to these things, I will make a very single sentence idea:

Even a simple sentence spoken in feudal languages, with appropriate verbal codes, can very powerfully throw a group of people, who existed in English without any seeming heights and lowliness between them, into different heights and lowliness in various directions in the social system.

The above sentence is a minimal way to convey a very huge idea. If the reader can grasp the information, well and good. Otherwise, if he or she is interested in getting a more deeper information on the theme, he or she might need to read my other writings.

I will make a very brief write up on how the world can be made a better place. Writing a huge text here will be counterproductive. If any reader wants to know the wider reasons on why I am promoting this idea here, they can read my other books.

1. Hand over the administration of any independent social system or nation or location to a group of selected native-English individuals.

2. A kind of apartheid should be enforced whereby the native-English will have a private space in the nation for all their private activities. Native-English only – Clubs, beaches, playgrounds, schools, colleges, eateries, staying places &c.

3. A similar kind of ethnicity-based exclusive Clubs, beaches, playgrounds, schools, colleges, eateries, staying places &c. can be created for any ethnic group of people, if any group requires them. However, generally no other group other than pristine-Arabs and some such similar populations would make use of this right. For, everyone would love to gatecrash into native-English locations.

4. White skinned, non native-English, persons should not be allowed to get identified with the native-English. So they should not be allowed admission into native-English only locations. However, as mentioned earlier, the White-skinned persons can have their own exclusive zones if they want.

5. There should be other places - Clubs, beaches, playgrounds, schools, colleges, eateries, staying places &c., where anyone of any ethnicity can enter and use the facilities therein. That is, a general or common areas.

6. The native-English can mix with the others and vice versa, as much as they want. However they should not physically go into the residential areas of the others, other than for official purpose. This is a very powerful statement that would require some deep understanding of the language codes inside feudal languages.

7. The native-English individuals living in this particular locality should not have the right to do any commercial activity. They should remain only as the administrating or teaching class of persons.

8. Selection of the native-English for this kind of work should be done in a very selective manner. Those among them who have studied under feudal language speakers, those who have learned feudal languages, those who have friends or companions who are feudal language speakers, those who have been classmates of feudal languages speakers, those who have family members who are feudal language speakers, those among them who have married feudal language speakers &c. should be ranked low in the selection process. Some of them should be marked as downright ineligible for this work. However, as of now, it might be quite difficult to find native-English speakers who are bereft of all these negative strings on them.

9. The native-English who get selected for this kind of administrative work should be given very detailed information on what is different about pristine-English. They should be made to understand that they are part of a very unique group that can create a very sensible social system.

10. The nation or location or social system should be encouraged to use pristine-English in all communications. The carnivorous codes inside feudal languages should be made known to all.

11. Primary school teaching should be handed over to extreme highly paid native-English teachers. If this done, the issue of certain jobs like doctors &c. only being quality jobs, and many jobs like Taxi driving &c. becoming despicable jobs will get erased from the minds of the youngsters. In fact, such concepts as right to equal treatment, right to dignity of stature, dignity of labour etc. will spread throughout the land if this done.

12. Right to drive a motor vehicle should be restricted to only those who are good in English. Ownership of commercial vehicles should be allowed only to those who are good in English. This is to ensure that the persons who get engaged as commercial vehicle drivers are not addressed or referred to in the pejorative part of the feudal languages.

13. The most fundamental idea behind the above contention is that all working individuals and also animals would derive the highest personality elevation when they are under the native-English. If they are under the feudal language speakers, their individuality will vary according to the number of levels above them and number of levels under them. Many of them on the lower levels will be crushed personality-wise. And these persons will act and react in ways and manners that are designed to express their individuality from their suppressed state.

14. Almost all other population groups will create only highly corrupt, mutually repulsive social systems. They will create a communication system inside the social system, wherein extreme social heights and total poverty or extreme human lowliness are part of the social system.

15. Even in South Africa, the Boers only displayed the reflected glory of the native-English therein. Actually the Boers were also a very crude and barbarian population. Indeed, it is the proximity to the native-English that has given a glow to many (maybe not all) Continental European nations. If England had been close to South Asia for centuries, South Asia would also have glowed.

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The above-mentioned is the very brief framework of the ideas for creating a very good social system. At the moment, many persons very pointedly make disparaging comments about the native-English. And yet, would quite slyly like to move over to native-English nations. I am aware of communist party leaders who had spent much time in decrying native-English nations, slowly relocating their children to native-English nations.

It is all a matter of using a quality social communication software. However, simply learning English or knowing to speak it would not be sufficient to replace the native-English population in the above-mentioned scenario. For, inside feudal languages, each person comes with a huge load of strings attached to him, each one of them containing dynamic codes for heights and lowliness. This would not vanish simply because he or she learns English. This idea if quite deep and might need a huge number of words to explain.

When speaking about the native-English versus Continental Europe, there are certain things that might be mentioned. One is that till around beginning of the 1st World War at least, the French were trying all sorts of permutations and combinations in South Asia to finish off the English rule over there. Even in the case of a particular terror attack on a well-beloved Collector (district administrator) in Madras state, a possibility that it was the nearby French-ruled location which had given the gun for the terror purpose had been mentioned in those days.

If this be the exact scenario, the Great Britain going for a war with Germany to save the French seems quite a foolish idea. In fact, even the history of the French Revolution army being attacked by Great Britain was totally foolish. For, the king of France who had been beheaded by the French revolutionaries was the probably a king who had supported the French attack on the English side both in South Asia as well as in the New World.

As to the US, it has become a place where all the Continental Europeans merge together and become equal to the native-English. Actually this is also a very foolish situation. For, in the immediate aftermath of the 2nd World War, both Germans as well as the Italians barged into the US. This is also a very idiotic scene. Citizens of the defeated nations are being allowed inside to take over the land and the economy! No sane nation would condone this kind of actions.

And what are these swarmed into the US whites doing over there? In every discussion on the native-English or England, these sinister populations use very deprecatory words upon England and the native-English.

Actually in the US, every sinister language population groups are having a fabulous time. They think that they brought in genius, skills and capacities, and that the other nations, including their own native nations are bereft of them. The fact is the if spoken language of USA changes into Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Mandarin, Zulu, Malayalam, Korean, Telugu &c. the national momentum will slow down. The social system will break down. The only contribution which the geniuses and extremely-skilled immigrants would give would be a scene of totally disarraying of the social system.

If the counter question is, why nations which are having such sinister languages are not breaking down, the answer is that in those nations a huge majority of the people are in a shackled state. This shackling is done by verbal codes. And hence it is not visible to a person who looks for a metal shackles and chains.

For instance, in India, around 70% of the population are in terrible conditions. However, the affluent people in India are not bothered. In fact, they are happy that the other section is shackled. For, if the shackled sections are unshackled, they will come to compete with them in everything. And the lower classes are seen as repulsive in India. That is how the language codes work.

There are many things that cannot even be understood in their slightest form by the native-English. If I were to claim that in a feudal language nation such as India, for an ordinary educated person to be taken called into a police station and talked to or questioned, can in most times be an experience of being pushed into a stinking cesspool, will the reader understand it? There is no way to convey this information in English other than to explain the tiny invisible details of the language codes in very slow pace. But who has the time and inclination for all that?

The US is actually a nation built up upon a framework of native-English settlements in the New World. However, as of now, all the non-English persons who have entered there are literally enjoying the English ambience, and at the same time making totally derogatory wordings about England.

Some years back, I did comment on Huffingtonpost newsmedia website for quite some time. A lot of recriminatory retorts used to come upon my posts from various US-based persons. With the exception of a few, all the others were totally of an ignorant kind. How then are these persons able to be part of a very grand nation?

Well, the answer is that in a native-English nation, everyone can get to enjoy the best of his or her communication abilities. This is what creates a good social set up and nation. Technical knowledge and various other skills are actually a dime a dozen in various other nations. However, their language systems do not allow the creating of a highly dignified and least blocking communication system. Instead, their language create terrific mood for backstabbing and blocking each other. Instead of being supporting others in the social system, the general mood would be that of jeering.

Coming back to my comments in Huffingtonpost, due to my posts seeming to be quite weird and of a kind of racism that was not clearly definable, there was or were some complaints and my account was blocked and I lost all my comments. However, the retorts that I had received were in my email. Some them I have posted here on this page.

In the US, the Continental European Whites cannot bear the native-English, but would not allow anyone to mention that the native-English are different from them. As to the blacks in the US, the erstwhile US slave-descendent blacks could be totally different from the blacks who are entering into the US in the last so many years. However, no one has the calibre to mention this.

If the social set-up that I have mentioned here is enforced in any nation, that nation will grow up. Even if South Asia is handed over to the (pristine) native-English to rule in accordance to the scheme I have proposed, the location will become fabulous. As of now, the nations of India and Pakistan looks fabulous, if one were to confine one’s vision to the government employees and other super rich locations in these nations. Actually rich and poor is not the basic problem in these nations, but the satanic languages codes.


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The book

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h #


THE NATIVE RACES OF SOUTH AFRICA

A History of the Intrusion of the Hottentots and Bantu into the Hunting Grounds of the Bushmen, the Aborigines of the Country

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
By
GEORGE W. STOW, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.

Edited by
GEORGE McCALL THEAL, Litt.D., LL.D.
Formerly Keeper of the Archives of the Cape Colony and at present Colonial Historiographer
Author of “History of South Africa” in seven volumes

LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIMITED
New York : THE MACMILLAN CO.
1905


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CONTENTS

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bc #


Commentary

Illustrations

Editor's Preface

Preface

Dedication

CHAPTER I
The Ancient Abatwa or Bushmen

CHAPTER II
The Great Antiquity of the Bushmen in South Africa

CHAPTER III
Habits of the Bushmen

CHAPTER IV
Weapons and Implements of the Bushmen

CHAPTER V
The Bushmen's Methods of Hunting and Fishing

CHAPTER VI
Social Customs of the Bushmen

CHAPTER VII
Mode of Burial of the Bushmen — Heaps of Stones — Some of their Beliefs

CHAPTER VIII
The Various Groups of Bushman Tribes

CHAPTER IX
The Various Groups of Bushman Tribes (continued)

CHAPTER X
The Various Groups of Bushman Tribes {continued)

CHAPTER XI
The Bushmen of the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony

CHAPTER XII
The Struggle of the Bushmen for Existence

CHAPTER XIII
The Encroachment of the Stronger Races

CHAPTER XIV PAGE
The Tribes of the West Coast

CHAPTER XV
The Koranas

CHAPTER XVI
Account of Various Korana Clans

CHAPTER XVII
The Griquas

CHAPTER XVIII
Barend Barends, the Original Chief of the Sept of the Bastaards

CHAPTER XIX
The Griquas of the Early Settlement

CHAPTER XX
The Griqua Chiefs

CHAPTER XXI
The Agricultural and Pastoral Bachoana and Basutu Tribes of the North

CHAPTER XXII
The Tribes of the Second Period of the Bachoana Migration

CHAPTER XXIII
The Career of the Mantatee Horde

CHAPTER XXIV
The Barolong

CHAPTER XXV
The Bakuena or Bakone Tribes

CHAPTER XXVI
The Bakuena of the North

Index

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Illustrations

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i #

ILLUSTRATIONS

1 Portrait of a Bushman

2 Bushman Rock Chipping

3 Stone Implements for making Ostrich Eggshell Beads .

4 Portraits of Bushman Children

5 Bushman Pipes for smoking Dacha

6 Bushman Quiver and Poisoned Arrows

7 Bushman Painting showing Disguised Hunter

8 Bushman Painting of Gnus and other Animals

9 Bushman Musical Instruments

10 Bushman Painting of Elands and Lions

11 Carved Stone Bowl of Bushman Hookah

12 Hottentot Woman (from Le Vaillant)

13 Basutu Wall Decorations

14 Batlapin Weapons

15 A Copper Casting by Bakuena

16 Two Copper Castings by the same Tribe

17 Wooden Vessels of the Bakuena

18 Bachoana and Basutu Spoons

19 Bamangwato Weapons

20 Bamangwato and Mashona Implements

21 Bakuena Wall Decorations

22 Bamangwato Implements

MAP showing Lines of Migration of the various Races.


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ep #. Editor's Preface

The author of this volume died before it was ready for the press. The illustrations had, most fortunately, been carefully prepared, and they are reproduced by chromolithography, so that they are indistinguishable from the originals, except that most of them have been reduced in size. The manuscript was purchased by Miss Lucy C. Lloyd from Mr. Stow's widow, with the intention of having it published, but other work has prevented that lady from bestowing upon it the time and care needed for its arrangement.

In 1904 Miss Lloyd, feeling that a work of such importance ought to be placed before the public without further delay, did me the honour of submitting the manuscript for my inspection and advice as to what should be done in the matter.

It needed only a hasty look through the packets to impress me with the conviction that no production of such value upon the native races of South Africa had yet appeared, and I was therefore most anxious that it should be published. I may add that the draft of Mr. Stow's intended dedication of the result of his researches to that highly gifted and justly esteemed governor, Sir Bartle Frere, whose aid and encouragement were also extended to me in a special manner, had no little influence in stimulating me to undertake the task of seeing the work through the press.

Miss Lloyd, who is the greatest living authority upon the Bushmen, attested the accuracy of much in Mr. Stow's description of the customs and mode of life of those people, though she doubted whether his division of that race into the two branches of painters and sculptors could be maintained, thinking it probable that this matter was determined by locality and convenience.

The accuracy of his accounts of the Barolong and Bakuena tribes I can myself confirm, as, independent of researches in books and manuscript records, I was on several occasions directed by the high commissioner. Lord Loch, to investigate territorial claims between rival chiefs of those branches of the Bantu family, and have been for weeks together engaged in taking evidence from the disputants, their counsellors, and antiquaries, upon their history as far back as tradition reached, which I find correctly given in these pages.

It appears also, from Mr. Stow's manuscript, that he had the assistance of the late Charles Sirr Orpen, Esquire, a gentleman whose researches into the history of various native tribes extended over a very long period, and were carried on with diligence and carefulness never surpassed.

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On the other hand, it is only right to mention that Mr. Stow never had an opportunity of research in the colonial archives, and was dependent entirely upon other authors, chiefly Lieutenant-Colonel Sutherland, for information concerning the Hottentot tribes at the time of the settlement of the Dutch in South Africa. Those tribes certainly extended farther along the coast to the eastward than he describes them to have done. For the same reason his account of the early career of Jager Africaander is not quite accurate. But these are very small blemishes, and detract only in a slight degree from the value of his work.

The manuscript when it came into my hands was in an unfinished state. It was not divided into chapters and the paragraphs were often of great length. It was clogged with a vast number of extracts from almost every English book previously published upon South Africa some of which were given to corroborate the author's statements, others that their inaccuracies might be shown. To have retained these would have swelled the book to such a size that no publisher would have undertaken to issue it, and they really added very little to its value.

With Miss Lloyd's consent, I therefore struck nearly all of them out. The remainder of the manuscript I divided into chapters of convenient length for readers, and I broke up the long paragraphs into short ones. I added nothing whatever to the text, and, except in a very few instances, I retained the author's spelling of proper names, though often differing from that in my own history. The date on the draft of Mr. Stow's preface is the latest given by him, but would probably have been altered had he lived to complete the work himself.

The photographs of Bushmen were supplied by Miss Lloyd from her large collection. They show the striking features of the people of this race : the hollow back, the lobeless ear, the receding chin, the sunken eye, the lowness of the root of the nose, the scanty covering of the head with little knots of wiry wool, and the low angle of prognathism as compared with negroes.

Having, jointly with Miss Lloyd, corrected the proofs and revises, I added an index, which is indispensable for a work of reference, and with this completed what was no more than the duty of one holding the appointment of colonial historiographer with respect to a work of such importance for both ethnological and historical study as this of Mr. Stow, who has been long in his grave, and whom I never had the pleasure of meeting, though my researches in the same field were well advanced in one part of South Africa before his ended in another.

GEO. M. THEAL.
London, May, 1905.

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p #. Preface


On my arrival in the Cape Colony in 1843, having settled on the extreme border, I was not long in discovering that, although the settlers were in daily contact with races entirely different from their own, no reliable information could be obtained of the manners and customs, much less of the early history of these strange people.

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The struggle for existence among the settlers themselves was of too keen and earnest a character to allow of the leisure necessary to carry out such an inquiry systematically, from the constant state of hostility which existed between them, owing to the almost unchecked depredations of the frontier tribes. As was natural, such a condition of affairs fostered a feeling that was altogether antagonistic to the development of that frame of mind which alone can enable us to judge dispassionately and impartially of men whose savage and untutored instincts urged them to plunder the more peaceful and well-disposed colonists, and to glory in the excitement of continuous raids upon the herds of their white neighbours. Thus a state of chronic warfare was entailed upon both parties, with intermittent periods, of greater or less duration, of armed truce.

Under such circumstances, few took sufficient interest in the obnoxious tribes by which they were surrounded to attempt to collect any of the traditionary history connected with them, and the works of those travellers who had visited the country before the war of races had assumed its subsequent proportions and intensity, were at that time unobtainable. The greater number of the missionaries who were then residing among them, and who might have collected many of the traditions which are now lost for ever, considered the past history of a race of savages as a matter of little moment in comparison with making converts to their own special ideas of salvation, and even when any facts regarding their new protégés were recorded by them they in general gave such a biassed and distorted description as to render their evidence so untrustworthy as to be perfectly valueless in carrying out any impartial philosophical or ethnological inquiry

The simple fact that certain tribes were found occupying some given tract of country at the time of the missionary's arrival was of itself, without further question, deemed irrefragable proof that these particular natives must have been its rightful owners from time immemorial. Thus erroneous statements and unfounded claims were not only promulgated, but upheld with a holy fervour a positiveness of assertion, and acrimony of feeling, which were only equalled by the profound ignorance of the disputants with regard to the real state of the case. The white nations were looked upon, and spoken of, as the only intruders into the ancient domains of the "poor natives," and the only race which had trodden under foot, with a remorselessness and cruelty deserving universal execration, the rights of the ill-treated aborigines.

Each of the men of this school confidently asserted that his own special tribe, or the one he had taken under his own special protection, was the true representative of the original possessors of the soil. Such was the spirit in which inquiries were made into tribal history from 1843 to 1853, if such dogmatic assertions can be called inquiry. How then can it be a matter of wonder that so many unfounded theories were circulated, giving rise to a multitude of erroneous opinions, many of which are current at the present day? One fallacious statement backed up another, and they were so often reiterated that they not only gained implicit credence, but, from the character of their promulgators, were considered to carry with them an authority which ought not to be doubted ; and thus, ultimately, the claims of the true aborigines of this portion of the continent were lost sight of entirely.

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Image: Hottentot individual

For some years after my arrival in the Colony I was impressed with the idea that the Hottentots were the aboriginal inhabitants of the western, and the Kaffirs of the eastern portion of the country, and that the Bushmen were waifs possessing no particular claims to territory, nor any fixed place of abode. My ideas, however, upon this point underwent a considerable change as my notes accumulated, for as I gained more and more information regarding the native tribes, I became gradually impressed with a firm conviction that the Bushmen alone were the true aborigines of the country, and that all the stronger races, without exception, were mere intruders. Traces of Bushman cave-paintings were still to be found in every direction, and even in localities where for a generation or two no Bushmen had been seen. In the first instance the existence of these primitive artistic productions suggested the idea of gathering materials for a history of the Bushmen, as illustrated by themselves.

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Image: Bushmen 1892

In carrying out this design, every additional item of information but tended to establish the fact that they were once thickly spread over the whole country, and that their occupation could also be traced far towards the north, even into the tropics ; and the evidence proved, in as equally conclusive a manner, that there was doubtless a time when they were the sole proprietors of the country. This conclusion brought me face to face with the question of "the Intrusion of the Stronger Races." Such queries as, whence could they have come, and what could have been the order of their arrival, thus presenting themselves, naturally aroused a desire to obtain, if possible, some information upon so interesting a subject. I then commenced collecting data upon this particular point, although I did so with many doubts as to the probability of accomplishing such a task, intending if I succeeded to devote a section of the contemplated work to its consideration.

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Although I ultimately, after some years' perseverance, effected my object beyond my most sanguine expectations, nevertheless at the commencement difficulties, even from unexpected quarters, were ever presenting themselves : such as the apathy displayed upon the subject by far the greater number of people appealed to, even of educated men, who from their position were most advantageously situated for gleaning the scattered traditions of the various tribes; the suspicion with which some of the old natives themselves looked upon such inquiries also frequently baffled every effort to obtain reliable evidence from them, as they imagined there must be some ulterior motive in seeking for information with regard to their early movements, having no idea that such a thing could be done from a simple desire of acquiring historical knowledge. On many such occasions, therefore, they feigned profound ignorance and obliviousness, while the younger men of the rising generation, instead of troubling themselves about the ancient traditions of their tribes, seem, as a rule, desirous of forgetting and even obliterating, if possible, the recollection of the antecedents of their savage forefathers.

Under such adverse conditions several years were spent almost profitlessly, in vain attempts to procure the desired data. Still, during this time a sufficient number of glimpses were obtained, which clearly demonstrated the fact that traditions of this migratory movement were to be found among all the tribes of the stronger races. At length more favourable circumstances brought me immediately in contact with a great number of various tribes, or fragments of tribes, when, as the evidence upon the point at issue accumulated, it proved with every addition more convincing and overwhelming.

It was during this period that I became indebted to the zealous co-operation of Mr. CHARLES SIRR ORPEN, of Smithfield, Orange Free State, and much of the success in the ethnological researches I have since carried out has been due to his untiring energy. I received important assistance also from the investigations of Captain Blyth, chief magistrate of the Transkeian Territory, the Rev. H. Moore-Dyke, of Morija, British Basutuland, the Rev. Roger Price, of the Northern Bakuena, the Rev. Richard Giddy, of the Native Reserve, Herschel, and the Rev. F. Maeder, of the Bataung mission, which they readily and heartily entered into at my suggestion.

I have also to thank Miss Lucy C. Lloyd, Judge Buchanan, and Mr. Alfred Barlow for the valuable aid they afforded me in supplying me with works of reference, which under other circumstances it would have been impossible to have obtained so far in the Interior. From among the multitude of native authorities, I am especially beholden to the Basutu chief Mapeli, and Lipatsane, the last chief of the Bakulukwa (a branch of the Baputi), for their vivid word-pictures of numerous stirring episodes in the history of the tribes with which they were acquainted. The descriptive powers of Mapeli are seldom equalled, even among the natives, although many excel in the figurative and poetic style of language which they employ when relating the exploits of their chiefs.

After my investigations had arrived at this stage, the long-desired information almost poured in from every quarter, until the materials upon the early migrations of the races now residing in South Africa attained such proportions that it became necessary to modify the original plan, and arrange them as a distinct work under the present title.

Such then was the origin of "The Races of South Africa" ; but, after all the time expended in collecting the materials, it has necessarily been made up of shreds and patches, so much so that one cannot help being painfully impressed with its many shortcomings and imperfections, and must ever regret that such an attempt was not made some fifty years ago. Since the commencement of the present century how many of the old tribal chroniclers, men who were the great repositories of the traditionary lore of the country, have not been suddenly cut off in the merciless native wars which have intervened.

The few survivors are now old, most of them very old men, widely scattered and hidden in the nooks and corners of the land, and are fast disappearing from the face of the earth ; while the quasi-educated native looks with contempt upon the tribal traditions of his forefathers, and thus as each one of these ancients passes away, so much knowledge with regard to the tribes of South Africa is lost for ever. It is certain that before another quarter of a century has elapsed, the opportunity of rescuing any portion of it from oblivion will have irrevocably glided from our grasp.

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Even those native authorities of the present day who profess that they have preserved some portion of the history of their tribes have so mutilated and adulterated the traditions, modifying them to suit the altered conditions of the nation or tribe to which they belong, that the originality and authenticity of these narrations have at length in many instances become so completely obscured or destroyed that they are rendered nearly valueless as affording material whereon to build a reliable and veracious tribal history.

This was seen in a marked manner in gathering materials for the memoirs upon the Frontier Hottentots, Griquas, and Basutu. With regard to the last, the discrepancies between the evidence given by Nehemiah Moshesh, a younger son of Moshesh, in 1880, and that of Mokoniane, a great fighting captain of the Bamokoteri, a clan of the Basutu, to M. Arbousset, in 1834-6, as well as that of Mapeli, a brother of Moshesh, and contemporary of Mokoniane, in 1878 to myself, are striking instances of this fact. The statements of Nehemiah evidently embody all the additions and modifications which have been made to the original tribal history.

This tampering has been clearly intended to show that from the commencement Moshesh had a rightful claim, both by descent and inheritance, to the paramount chieftainship of the Basutu nation, as well as to the territory over which he subsequently attempted to exercise sovereignty ; while, on the other hand, those of Mokoniane and Mapeli give the history of the rise of the clan of Moshesh with a clearness which is unmistakable as to the insignificance and second-rate position of the Bamokoteri at the outset of Moshesh's career, before his ambition led him to lay claim to every inch of country over which his marauding parties had pushed their cattle raids.

Again, their evidence is equally distinct upon the point of the Bamonaheng chiefs being acknowledged as the paramount power at the time when the Bamokoteri were nothing more than a miserable sept occupying a most circumscribed piece of country among the rugged ravines near the sources of the Caledon. The two other narrators spoke of what they had themselves witnessed ; the younger gave the tribal traditions after they had been trimmed up and modified so as to support the more ambitious schemes and ideas of the dynasty of Moshesh.

The knowledge of such facts indicated the necessity of employing considerable caution in collating the evidence thus obtained from witnesses swayed by different interests, and who therefore viewed the occurrences they narrated from different standpoints. To arrive at impartial and trustworthy conclusions has been the consummation I have striven to achieve in the compilation of the present work ; viz. to separate as much as possible the reliable from the fictitious, so that if it does not reveal the whole truth (an accomplishment which is an impossibility, since so much of it has been irrecoverably lost), it may at any rate shed some additional light upon the Races of South Africa, and possibly be the means of rescuing some portion of their traditions from the oblivion which threatens them ; while their diffusion may lead to more correct opinions being entertained with regard to them.

GEO. W. STOW.
Bloemfontein, Orange Free State,
6th September, 1880.

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d

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d #. Dedication


To

HIS EXCELLENCY

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR H. BARTLE FRERE,

K.C.B., G.C.S.L, F.R.S., etc., etc..
Governor of the Cape Colony
AND Her Majesty's High Commissioner for South Africa,

This work is respectfully dedicated, as a token of appreciation of the encouraging interest he has shewn, since his arrival in the country in the ethnological studies of the author.
Geo. W. Stow.

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1

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1 #. THE ANCIENT ABATWA OR BUSHMEN


It is frequently found that the descriptions given by various travellers of the same country differ very considerably the one from the other, and yet each writer, as far as we can judge, appears to be an accurate observer and reliable in noting correctly whatever came under his observation. This diversity has arisen, not from want of ability in describing, or any error occasioned from negligence, but rather from their limited experience, from having made the examination at different periods, and under different aspects.

Each described what he saw, and described it correctly ; but then he had only examined its features in one particular light, and therefore his delineation conveyed only a portion of the truth. Thus one travelling on the western side of a certain mountain range may tell us that a particular crest is capped with enormous precipices, which are perfectly inaccessible ; another approaching it from the east, and who has seen it only on its opposite face, informs us that instead of being precipitous, the mountain in question slopes to the very top, with the exception of a few insignificant fringing precipices detached from one another, while the mountain summit may be easily gained through the open spaces.

The fact is both were right, but in either case each writer had only an opportunity of examining one side of the object described : a mountain presenting the features of " crag and tail," often met with in different portions of Southern Africa.

And as such writers differ in their topographical descriptions, so they frequently disagree in their deductions, not only in regard to the country itself, but also the people who inhabit it, giving rise to erroneous ideas, which, at length, by being repeated by others even less informed than themselves, become accepted as verities, and thus, instead of progressing in knowledge, the fallacies become stereotyped and perpetuated, without further questioning, the one to the others.

This has certainly been the case with regard to the aborigines of South Africa. Much has been said and written about them, but much error still exists on the subject among those who have discussed it. Most appear to have entered upon the topic with a foregone conclusion in their minds, and thus their examinations have been confined to one side of the mountain, and stopped short at the very point at which they would have become the most interesting.

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The writer trusts that a residence of thirty-six years in the country, during which time he has been animated with the desire of obtaining reliable data upon so important a question, has given him an opportunity of inspecting at leisure the typical mountain on every side, and thus enabled him to speak of it in its entirety ; and that, on the present occasion, by attempting to describe it in its different aspects and from different points of view he may succeed in clearing away some of the mists which have for so long a time hidden or obscured its true outlines.

In this attempt he is duly impressed with the difficulties which must be encountered in carrying out such a design, and also with the imperfections which must naturally cling to any endeavour to work out the primitive history of a country which never possessed a history of its own, and where sources of information can only be derived from scattered and fragmentary tribal traditions and obscure and sometimes apparently conflicting myths ; but which, doubtless, possess a germ of truth that may possibly be discovered by careful comparison and an almost microscopical examination.

Such, then, has been the somewhat presumptuous endeavour of the writer ; but he can assure those who may study the following pages that, whatever shortcomings may be found in them, and their name must be legion, it was only after long years of close investigation and research that he felt himself competent, or was justified, in making the present effort to remove some of the mystery and misconception which have so long clouded from view the true aborigines of Southern Africa.

Previously, in most instances, they have been described differently from what they really were, or set altogether on one side by obtrusively thrusting others into their place who never possessed the least right or title to be classed among the primitive inhabitants of the country.

In carrying out this design we will consider in the first place —

1 . The widely extended occupation by the Bushmen in former times ;
2. Their probable origin in the North ;
3. A comparison of other races with them ;
4. Their great antiquity in South Africa ;
5. The Bushmen of Southern Africa ;
6. Their struggle for existence ; and
7. The encroachment of the stronger races.

I. The widely extended Occupation by the Bushmen in Former Times.

A considerable number of native traditions, obtained from widely separated sources, are almost unanimous with regard to the direction of the early migrations of the South African tribes, viz. from the North to the South.

They state, as a rule, that as their forefathers migrated southward, they found the entire country unoccupied, except that the plains swarmed with vast herds of game. They acknowledge, however, that the Bushmen were always to be found where the game was, and in their old myths of the origin of man they declare that when the Great Father brought men out of either the split reed or the fissure of a rock, the Bushmen had nothing to do with these ; he existed already ; therefore in speaking of a country as being uninhabited or unoccupied, the hunter race of the Bushmen was never taken into account.

Other tribal traditions, again, state that when their forefathers migrated to the south, they found the land without inhabitants, and that only the wild game and the Bushmen were living in it, evidently classing the Bushmen and the game in the same category as wild animals.

The portion of the continent with which we are now more especially interested is that part which has been defined as a cone-shaped mass of land terminating in the promontory of the Cape of Good Hope. This cone may be divided into three irregular concentric zones or belts, each being marked by distinct peculiarities in its physical features, climate and population. Advancing from the coast-line to the centre, these appear to rise in successive steps or terraces, the outer edges of each being fringed with ranges of mountains of greater or less elevation, the older rocks forming a rim around the great central plateau, which towards the middle forms a vast depressed, although still elevated basin, through which the great rivers 'Nu and 'Gij Gariep take their course.

The eastern or coast zone is often furnished with mountains, well-wooded with evergreen trees ; its seaboard gorges are clad with gigantic timber. It is abundantly watered with streams, meandering through every valley and ravine, while its inhabitants, such as the Amaxosa and Amazula, are tall and well-made.

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The next is that which embraces the more central portion of the continent, the greater portion of which was once occupied by the Great Lake region of Southern Africa, but now represented chiefly by immense slightly undulating plains, interspersed with a few scattered outliers and depressed ridges. It contains comparatively few springs, and fewer streams; the impervious water-bearing rocks, which are nearly horizontal, lying in most instances considerably below the surface. Rain also is far from either frequent or abundant, and periodical droughts visit the country.

The present inhabitants are Bachoana and Basutu, a race of men inferior to the coast tribes both in physical development and warlike energy. Interspersed among these are a few insignificant and scattered remnants of the aboriginal occupiers of the country, but who are rapidly diminishing in numbers.

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Image: Orange river / 'Gij Gariep Author:Keenan Pepper This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

The western zone, which includes the great plain of the Kalahari Desert, is still more level, and represents portions of the uplands of the old lake districts whose drainage supplied the streams which ran into the basin before mentioned. Here, mixed with scattered remnants of other broken tribes, are found those of Hottentot and Bushman origin, the former being the most numerous along the western coast, the latter scattered over the more sandy and arid plains of the interior.

There can be, however, little doubt but that at one time the Bushmen were, as they are described in the native traditions, the sole occupants of the entire country here indicated. We have not only traditions in support of this, but we have positive proof of this occupation, which the ancient Bushmen themselves have recorded upon the rocks, in their paintings, their sculptures or chippings, and stone implements, which are as much their unquestionable title-deeds as those more formal documents so valued among landowners in more civilised portions of the earth.

Their paintings are still to be seen in Damaraland, their sculptured rocks are found on or near the banks of the Mariqua and Malopo, and in different portions of the present Batlapin country. Numerous evidences of the same kind are found among the hills of Griqualand West, along the banks of the Vaal, and throughout the Free State territory, the Malutis, the Witte and Storm Bergen.

Their chippings or sculptures were found spread over the present Division of Beaufort West, and the caves and rock-shelters of the Sneeuwberg were filled with their paintings.

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Bushman painting: Cave painting created by the San people in the Cederberg Cave near Stadsaal. Image owner: Valroe at English Wikipedia

Until the latter part of last century their clans were still in undisturbed possession of the present colonial divisions of Somerset and Cradock, the Tarka and Winterberg, Hanglip and the Bongolo, and throughout the entire country from the Bontebok Flats to the banks, and even the sources, of the Tsomo.

Traces of their paintings are not only still found in the Transkeian Territory, but existed until very recently at Salem, near Grahamstown ; while some fifty years ago numerous paintings were preserved in many of the rock-shelters of the Kroome river, Lange Kloof, and George mountains, a few being still left as near Capetown as the hills in the neighbourhood of Worcester, Ceres, and Stellenbosch ; while the remains of their less perishable stone implements are scattered over the entire area from one end to the other.

Traces of these people were, in fact, to be found a quarter of a century ago in almost every direction, both in the Colony and in Kaffirland. Even in the land of the irrepressible Zulu, although no paintings have yet been noticed, remnants of Bushman tribes are still found in the most inaccessible portions of the country, some of whom, reduced to the lowest stage of existence, have from their peculiar habits obtained the name of Earthmen.

Mr. Moffat and some other writers have considered that the Hottentots were the original possessors of the soil ; abundance of evidence will be found in the present work to prove most satisfactorily that the Bushmen, and not the Hottentots, were the true aborigines of the country, the latter being, in comparison with the former, intruders of a recent date. It is only of the Bushman race that it can be truly said that they were robbed by every other race with which they came in contact, and compelled by them to abandon for ever the land of their ancestors.

From the evidence of the early colonial records, Moffat, Arbousset, and other writers with opportunities of observation, each corroborating and upholding the other, there cannot be any reasonable cause to doubt that from a remote period to a comparatively recent date Southern Africa was solely in the possession of the Bushman race. As we proceed in our investigation we shall find this position still more strongly substantiated by the testimony to be brought forward, when we come to consider the subject of the intrusion of the stronger races. We will now take under consideration the second point of our inquiry.

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2. Their Probable Origin in the North.

It seems almost as certain that even the aboriginal Bushmen migrated to the south as that they, at one time, were the sole possessors of the country. It seems somewhat surprising that so many writers have continued to class these people with the negroes and other dark-skinned, woolly-haired species of men ; whereas if we are to judge from their physical appearance, with the solitary exception of the hair, no two sections of the human race could be more divergent. Their closest affinities in this respect are certainly more frequently to be found among those now inhabiting the Northern Hemisphere than in any other portion of the world. It is possible that the character of the hair may point to the fact that they hold a kind of intermediate station, a kind of connecting link, but still one more nearly related to the men of the north than the splay-footed, swarthy races of Central Africa.

Even the bones of the Bushmen show a marked difference from those of a large number of the negro type. The writer in his long and frequent wanderings has had many opportunities of examining the striking characteristics which they present. This is particularly noticeable in the almost perfectly cylindrical shape of the bones of the extremities, and the extreme smallness of their hands and feet.

Every observant traveller who has come in contact with any of these people has been struck with their remarkably diminutive proportions. "The stature of both sexes," writes Harris, "is invariably below five feet." " Their complexion is sallow-brown." " The women, who were much less shy, are of small and delicate proportions, with hands and feet of truly Lilliputian dimensions. Their footprints reminded us of Gulliver's adventures, and are not bigger than those of a child. Whilst young they have a very pleasing expression of countenance."

One of these Bush-people was seen by this enthusiastic traveller, whose foot measured barely four inches in length. It is, therefore, undeniable that their diminutive size of limb gives their bones a delicacy of shape entirely foreign to those of the larger and more robust races alluded to, in some of which the projecting and uncouth-looking os calcis becomes a wonderful development.

As there are few in the present day who would hazard the opinion that the Bushmen were " a special creation," adapted peculiarly to South Africa, and as they are now cut off from the more northern birthplace whence they probably sprang, by a zone of nations more ferocious than themselves, we are led to suppose that the impetus which caused these old primitive hunters to migrate farther and farther to the southward was in a period of such remote antiquity that it must have been previous to the occupation of the country by the savage black races which now form, and must have ever formed since they have taken possession of the intervening area, an impenetrable cordon of barbarism, which the weaker hunter tribes, with their puny shafts, could never have forced their way through.

The original habitat of the negro is clearly involved in this but that is a subject which must be left for future discussion. It is however almost self-evident, if we consider but for a moment the condition of Central Africa, even at the present day, as described by the most recent travellers, that these stronger nations must have presented the impregnable barrier we have alluded to, through which such a race as the Bushmen never could have broken.

What Stanley and other enterprising travellers describe the black tribes to be now has doubtless been, with such unprogressive nations, their condition for unknown centuries. Had the remote ancestors of the Bushmen commenced their southern migration after the occupation of the central lands by these hordes of savage men, the smaller and weaker hunter race, as is evident from their subsequent history, could never, as we have before stated, have broken through such a cordon of fierce barbarity. All the evidence we have been able to collect tends strongly to prove that the Bushman race alone, in their southward migrations, moved through a perfectly unoccupied and uninhabited country. The other and stronger races closed in upon their southern retreat and followed" their footsteps at a later period.

It would seem from the present researches into the construction of the Bushman language that its northern origin will be fully established. The labours of the late lamented Dr. Bleek threw much new light upon this important subject ; and it may be looked upon as one of the most primitive forms of language which has survived to the present day. And the striking manner in which it has preserved what may be termed its purity and individuality is evidently owing to the long continued isolation of the race to which it belonged.

Unhappily, by the untimely death of the eminent philologist, inquiry was suspended just at the crisis when the origin of grammatical forms of gender and number, the etymology of pronouns, and kindred questions seemed likely to be solved. One of the great objects was to examine the lower or more primitive forms of speech, so as to exhibit thoroughly and fundamentally the relations in which the Hottentot language stands to some of the northern languages, such as the Egyptian, the Semitic, and those of the Indo-European family; in fact, to establish that kinship which had been indicated by the Rev. Dr. Adamson, long resident at the Cape.

This question of the Bushman language, its nearer affinity to those of the northern hemisphere than to those of Central Africa, and its freedom from any foreign intermixture, are points of the greatest importance in support of the position which we, upon other grounds, have taken up. One cannot imagine any two sections of the human race coming intimately in contact with each other, without one or both adopting in a greater or less degree a number of words and expressions taken from each other, and understood by both, thus becoming indestructible and indelible records of this mutual intercourse.

South Africa affords a very apt illustration of the manner in which this process takes place. Thus in what is styled by some " the Landstaal," or language spoken by the frontier Boer population, there is a sprinkling of Bushman and Hottentot words, marking the time when they first came in contact with the inhabitants of the country ; after which a few Kaffir words were introduced, and during the last fifty or sixty years a number of English expressions have been grafted on it. Again, during the last sixty or seventy years a considerable number both of colonial Dutch and native words have been anglicised in the language spoken by the colonial English, such as, for example —

Spruit, for a river or valley ; Lager, for a camp ;
Vlei, for a pond ; Inspan, to yoke oxen ;
Flat, for a plain ; and many others from the Dutch.
Kloof, for ravine or glen; Kerie or Keerie, a club,}
Poort, for a pass ; Karee or Karree, a tree,}
Drift, for a ford; from the Hottentot.
Spoor, for a trail;

The natives, on the other hand, have in a number of instances availed themselves of both English and Dutch words to express objects and ideas with which they were not before acquainted.

The same rule governs the intercourse of the English with the inhabitants of India, Australia, New Zealand, etc., native words in each dependency becoming gradually anglicised and grafted into the parent language. They thus become indubitable memorials of close contact with the various races inhabiting these countries, and we may feel convinced that what we see going on in the present day must have been in operation, under similar conditions, during all past time.

For this reason, therefore, we cannot imagine that the Bushman race, had they come into contact with others speaking languages differing from their own during the long series of generations which must have been occupied in their migration towards the south, would have formed any exception to this law, but that such contact must have left its impress upon them.

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The vanguard of the great westerly migration of the tribes of Coast Kaffirs acquired a number of clicks, after coming in contact with the aboriginal Bushmen, which are not to be found in use among the tribes that followed in their rear, and therefore only came in contact with such diminished numbers of the aborigines that their presence could make no impression upon the advancing tide of the stronger race.

The inference therefore, if not the positive conclusion, to be drawn from the foregoing facts is that the ancient Bushmen must, as we have before intimated, have gradually worked their way through a really unoccupied country, and that they were the primitive inhabitants of Southern Africa and the forerunners of every other race, a conclusion which is upheld by the most ancient traditions of every intruding tribe now found in the southern portion of the continent.

The conviction of Mr. Moffat that the Bushmen (included by him among the Hottentots) were the true aborigines was evidently forced upon his mind from some of the considerations which have been advanced. This appears when he writes :

" It may not be considered chimerical to suppose that the Hottentot progenitors took the lead, and gradually advanced in proportion as they were urged forward by an increasing population in their rear, until they reached the ends of the earth."

That this was the case is a demonstrable fact, which will be found enlarged upon in another portion of the present work. Their history during the last century and a half has too clearly proved that had the central portions of the continent been already occupied by any of the stronger races, similar to those which have been for the last few generations opposed to them, they could never, with their primitive weapons, have broken through such a barrier of savagedom as must thus under such circumstances have been placed in opposition to their southern progress.

It seems also certain that as the main body of the race moved on in front, detached clans lingered behind in sequestered and isolated spots, until they were overtaken, surrounded, and cut off for ever from their migrating countrymen by the advancing tide of the stronger races, which after driving them for refuge into dense jungles and nearly impenetrable forests, or the rocky fastnesses of almost inaccessible mountains, rolled on beyond them, making their isolation still more complete by the increase, in succeeding generations, of the surrounding hostile population ; and thus it is that enterprising travellers penetrating into the interior of the Dark Continent still hear traditions of communities of untamable dwarfs, who, even in the present day, hide themselves in the mysterious recesses of the primeval forests.

Such, in all probability, was the dwarf race described by Schweinfurth* ; and such those of whom Stanley writes : " In the unknown region west of Nyangwe, a region which Livingstone panted to reach but could not, and which Cameron intended to explore but did not, all is involved in mystery ; the intense superstition of the Africans has enshrouded it with awesome gloom. It is peopled in their village stories with terribly vicious dwarfs, striped like zebras, who deal certain death with poisoned arrows, who are nomads, and live on elephants. A great forest stretches no one knows how far north, certainly no one has seen the end of it."

* Might be: Georg August Schweinfurth was a Baltic German botanist, explorer of East Central Africa and ethnologist. (from Wikipedia)

Du Chaillu* also alludes to traditions of a race of wonderful dwarfs inhabiting some portion of the country which he visited ; and it is highly probable, when the evidences of Bushman occupation are better known, — such as his chippings on the South African rocks — than they are at present, that similar traces of his migrations will be found even still farther to the north.

* Might be: Paul Belloni Du Chaillu was a French-American traveller, zoologist, and anthropologist. (from Wikipedia)

Mr. Moffat considered that the Bushmen have descended from the Hottentots, and gives what he supposes to be a parallel case, in the Balala, a tribe to be noticed in the sequel ; but so much evidence has since been obtained which proves this hypothesis to be untenable, that we should only be led into error should we adopt it in pursuing our inquiry. The Korana traditions appear conclusive on the point of the prior existence of the Bushmen in the country, at the time their forefathers migrated from tropical Central Africa to the western coast, and thence to the Cape.

That both Hottentots and Bushmen may have descended from the same original stock seems more likely. In that case, however, such a length of time elapsed between the migration of the two offshoots that the language had completely changed, and when they again came in contact they were not able to understand one another. With regard to the language of the Hottentot race, Mr. Moffat remarks that "genuine Hottentots, Koranas, and Namaquas meeting for the first time from their respective and distant tribes could converse with scarcely any difficulty," while the Bushmen " speak a variety of languages " (? dialects)" even when nothing but a range of hills or a river intervenes between the tribes, and none of these dialects is understood by the Hottentots."

Again, this writer considers the present condition of the Balala will explain the difference. It may explain the difference of the variety of dialects among the Bushmen themselves, but not the wide gap between the language of the Hottentots and that spoken by the Bushmen.

We have also another proof of the length of time which must necessarily have elapsed between the two migrations. Not only had the language completely changed, but the tribes of the later migration had advanced from the purely hunter to the nomadic pastoral stage of existence, while a noticeable alteration had taken place in their physical development. They were no longer tribes of diminutive dwarfs, but they had become a taller race of men, although still inferior to the more robust and manly Kaffir. A period, however, of no ordinary duration must have intervened to have effected changes of so marked a character.

From the foregoing one cannot doubt but that we are authorised in drawing the following deductions, viz. —

1. That the Bushman is not a development of the south, but that he must have had his origin somewhere in the distant unknown north.
2. That his language, his artistic talents, and even his physical characteristics, have closer affinities to some of the northern races than to that of the negro type.
3. That he migrated from the north to the south at a remote period.
4. That that period was so remote that the stronger black races could not then have occupied Central Africa.
5. That therefore the Bushman was the true aborigine of the country.

We can advance still a step further. The Bushman tribes, with regard to their artistic talents, were divided into painters and sculptors. This difference marks two distinct divisions of the Bushman race, and judging from the relics which they have left of their former ownership, they entered the widespread territories of Southern Africa by two different lines of migration. The sculptors moved to the southward through the more central portions of the country, crossing the Zambesi and traversing the country by the Lake Ngami, the Mariqua, and the upper Limpopo, thence to the Malalarene and the 'Gij Gariep or Vaal. In the valleys of these two rivers and in that of the Gumaap or Great Riet river they appear to have established their headquarters.

Some of them spread to the westward and occupied the mountains of Griqualand West, others extended to the east, and left the records of their occupation upon the rocks of the Wittebergen, a branch of the Maluti range projecting into the Free State. Others again pushed farther to the south, and sculptured over the rocks and boulders as far into the Cape Colony as the present division of Beaufort West, whence some of them migrated as far as the Sneeuwberg.

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River Zamebsi . Image owner: Hel-hama. Image license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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Beaufort West: Image owner: Htonl. Image licence: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The painters, on the other hand, appear to have advanced through Damaraland along the western coast. On arriving at the great mountain ranges in the south, they turned to the eastward, in which direction they can be traced as far as the mountains opposite Delagoa Bay. The main body of them, however, settled in the country now occupied by the Divisions of George, Uitenhage, Albany, Beaufort, Victoria East, Somerset, Cradock, Graaff Reinet, Queenstown, and the Transkeian Territory, thence to the Stormberg and the 'Nu Gariep or Upper Orange river, occupying the whole of the Colesberg and Aliwal districts, and crossing the river, filled every rock shelter to the east and northeast with their cave paintings.

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Image owner: Rémih

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They do not appear to have penetrated as far to the north as the Vaal river : that valley was already thickly peopled by clans of the other division of the family. They also came into contact with the sculptors of the north along the line of the Sneeuwbergen, where some of the clans appear to have amalgamated, as their artists combined both styles of art for the ornamentation of their rock shelters.

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A small clan of these painters appears to have penetrated as far as to the hills to the north of Griquatown, where a few isolated caves were filled with paintings, while chippings or sculptures alone are found in the country round. This was probably a fugitive clan, that had fled so far to the north whilst their countrymen were being ruthlessly hunted like wild beasts in the southern portions of the country.

Besides these there were numerous clans who lived in the centre of the great plains, thus filling up the intervening spaces with inhabitants, and who were neither painters nor sculptors. The painters were the true cave-dwellers, and delighted in ornamenting the walls of their rock shelters ; the sculptors lived in large communities, but they preferred the stony hills covered with projecting rocks and boulders, which they sculptured over with their carvings. Their great places were permanent residences, from which they started on their hunting expeditions ; their huts were small spherical structures, opening to the east. The occupants of the plains lived in, fragile portable shelters, constructed of withes and small rush mats, which they rolled up and moved as fancy and the game might lead them.

Image owner: NordNordWest. Image licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

3. Comparison of other Races with the Bushmen.

It appears a remarkable coincidence that we should find that all the representatives of the smaller races of men have been, as a rule, driven into the extremities of the various continents in which they are found, and that although they differ considerably from each other in many particulars, there is still a kind of general resemblance which is somewhat remarkable. A number of them seem to have inherited the germs of similar arts, and in some instances even similar modes of thought. They evidently started on their migrations when the hunter state was the most advanced stage of existence, when the use of metals had not been discovered, when language was still in its infancy and shackled with its early imperfections, and bone, flint, and horn afforded the only means of giving point to the weapons which they employed in the chase.

If we can imagine such a people emanating from a common centre, it must have been at some immensely remote period, before the development of the stronger races, who as they gradually came upon the scene, as gradually drove the smaller and weaker ones before them in various directions, until the latter became imprisoned for a vast cycle of ages in the uttermost comers of the earth ; each race becoming, through a variety of degrees, more and more adapted to the requirements of its own peculiar position, until they became so widely divergent from the original type in language and physical features, that all trace of connecting links which once probably bound them together have been destroyed, and only a certain general resemblance, such as we have suggested, has escaped the ravages and changes of time.

We will now, for the sake of comparison, give a rapid sketch of such of the races of man which, although in the present day widely separated from each other, still possess certain affinities that appear to be common, and would, therefore, seem to indicate a closer relationship in a remote past than that which they bear to one another in our time. In doing this we wish to avoid asserting anything dogmatically, but merely desire to point out, from a South African point of view, the direction we imagine such inquiries will have to take if the great problem of the true descent of the Bushmen of this country is to be correctly solved.

One very striking feature in the pure Bushman race is their remarkably dwarfish stature. Judging from the descriptions of various trustworthy authors, there appear to be many seeming affinities between them and some of the branches of the Mongolian race, the only marked difference being in the hair, the one having black, straight, strong, and thin hair ; whilst in the other the hair, although black, is in small tufts at distances from each other, but when suffered to grow it hangs in twisted tassels. This twisting is frequently increased by artificial means, as it was looked upon by some of the clans as a type of beauty.

The Mongolian, Dr. Pickering states in his Races of Men, "is pre-eminently a beardless race, the chin often remaining perfectly smooth, even to extreme age." The same might be stated of the Bushmen; and even when a few scattered patches do appear, they never attain more than the fraction of an inch in length, like a curly mop.

It is surprising how little notice appears to be taken of the Bushman, and how seldom the race is mentioned by many of the later European writers. This may arise from two causes : first, that the term Hottentot and Bushman have frequently been used synonymously, an error which even the writers of the earlier Dutch records seem to have constantly fallen into, giving rise to a confusion of ideas which has certainly led to erroneous impressions ; and in the second place, because for the last two or three generations these unfortunate people have been so harried and hunted like wild beasts, by every race of men who have intruded themselves into their ancient hunting-grounds, driving them into the most inaccessible portions of the country, and treating them with far less consideration than the most viciously outrageous of condemned criminals, that little opportunity has been afforded to visitors from other lands of studying them from any point except that permitted by their bitterest enemies.

With regard to the Bushmen, however, it can be confidently stated that there is no characteristic feature indicative of a certain affinity between the Hottentot and Mongolian tribes, which is not even more strongly marked in them. There appears no reason to doubt but that the Bushmen belong to a more primitive, and therefore purer stock, than the tribes of Hottentot origin ; and, as a consequence, it is amongst such a people that we may expect to be able to discover signs of closer connection between these at present widely geographically-separated branches, by striving to trace them back as near as possible to that point where the stream of life separated, than between the same original stock and the later wanderers who followed on the trail of the hunter race and occupied the intermediate area.

With regard to the Bushmen this would be rendered more easy from the remarkably isolated existence into which they were forced by their southern migration, which thus, for unknown centuries, kept them unmixed from the stronger races that pressed upon their rear, until the former found themselves hemmed in by the southern ocean. This isolation, however, enabled them to retain unchanged not only their primitive habits and customs from a very remote antiquity, but also their original and special physical characteristics, in a degree of purity seldom met with in other races.

If the prehistoric artists alluded to by various authorities on the American Indians were of the old Mongolian stock, it is certainly a most remarkable coincidence that this early tidewave of human migration to the east and south carried with it the same artistic tastes as that which was carried along with a similar wave which spread itself more directly to the south, and which went on developing itself in productions of a kindred nature, until they ultimately arrived at the perfection displayed in some of the Bushman paintings and sculptures in South Africa.

We are not aware of any of the ancient negro race who ever excelled in artistic productions of this kind ; such efforts appear to have been foreign to their nature, and this fact would seem to give us an additional assurance that we must look to some other source for the origin of the primitive artists of the earth. This idea is strengthened when we consider that there were, as has been demonstrated, ancient races possessing not only many of the physical characteristics which are common to the Bushmen, but also that they seemed to have inherited similar art germs, of so identical a description that they shadow forth the possibility of a common parentage in some remote period of the past.

Surprising as such coincidences as these appear, they are still more so when we learn that there are among the descendants of other primitive races which possess, not a similarity in artistic talents, but a wonderful identity in their respective modes of thought, although for unknown time the vast expanse of the Indian ocean has most effectually separated them.

This fact is clearly evinced by Dr. Bleek's remarks upon Resemblances in Bushman and Australian Mythology. He says that African researches have given the most emphatic confirmation to the idea that mythological notions, or the outward forms of religious beliefs, are primarily dependent upon the manner of speech, a fact which was first pointed out by Professor Max Miiller in his Essay on Comparative Mythology, and which is now generally allowed to be one of the most fertile and efficient for the purpose of understanding rightly the natural history of religion and mythology. These African investigations " have especially drawn our attention to the fact that the modes of thought, and among them the religious ideas, are dependent upon the forms of the language, and upon the stimulus which these forms give to the poetical faculty, etc."

The sex-denoting languages possess mythologies, while the prefix-pronominal languages, where no distinction is made, are merely addicted to ancestor-worship. The first filled the heavens with objects of adoration — the sun, the moon, the stars, and other natural objects ; whilst those nations whose languages are clearly different, and never have been sex-denoting (such as Kaffirs, negroes, etc.), are almost entirely devoid of the myth-forming faculty, and possess hardly any myths or true fables, excepting where, by contact with sex-denoting nations, these have, to a small extent, been adopted from the latter. The knowledge of this fact advances us another step, by learning that the languages of the negro, Kaffir, etc., and that of the Bushman, differ radically in their construction, thus affording us further proof that their origin must have been derived from different sources.

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Where myths are found among nations whose language is at present non-sex-denoting, it would seem to indicate that they had been derived originally from more remote languages of that character, and thus may afford evidence of the former state of the language.

“In fact, upon the evidence of the mythological notions which are found to exist among the nations speaking them, the great mass of those genderless languages which Professor Max Muller calls Turanian (from which, however, the Malay-Polynesian as originally prefix-pronominal are at all events to be excluded) must be concluded to have lost the sex-denoting character, just as the Persian has done in more modern times."

“The mythological conceptions of certain aborigines of Australia offer some curious points of resemblance to those entertained by the Bushmen of South Africa, as is pointed out in the following comparisons." In giving them Dr. Bleek says that it is not the special coincidences of belief between the Bushmen and the Australians, which he should conclude to have been derived by them from a common source, " but rather the spirit of mythological conception in both nations, due probably to similar causes.

"Both these nations are generally considered the lowest of the low in many points of human civilisation, as, for example, in their very imperfect numerical system, the Bushmen having no numerals beyond two or three,N and the Australians generally none beyond three or four. Yet by their mental and physical characteristics they lay claim to a nearer kindred with ourselves than do many far more civilised nations, especially those of the Kaffir and negro type. And certainly the possession of similar mythological notions, of which both Kaffirs and negroes are, generally speaking, destitute, is of no small moment in gauging their real affinities."

Notes: These simple numerals were (that is, among the Central and Eastern Bushmen) xa, one ; t'oa, two ; 'quo, three ; any higher numbers were expressed by repetitions, thus :

T'oa-t'oa _ four.
T'oa-t'oa-t'a _ five.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa = six.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-'ta = seven.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa = eight.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa-'ta — nine.
T'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa-t'oa — ten.

It is certain, however, that the constant repetition of the numbers three, five, and seven, their 'quo, t'oa-t'oa-'ta and t'oat'oa-t'oa-'ta in their symbolic representations in the valleys of the Gumaap and the Vaal evidently indicate that they had a mystic or sacred meaning, now lost, but known and understood at the time by the initiated.

“The aborigines of Victoria (especially the Booroung) believe that the earth was in darkness until an emu's egg was prepared and cast into space, when the earth became light. This was effected by one who belonged to an earlier race of people, who then inhabited the earth, but who were translated in various forms to the heavens, before the present race of men came into existence.”

“The Bushmen believe that there was a very dim light over the earth, and that the sun (who was a man) only shone round the place where he lay sleeping (the light proceeding from one of his armpits) ; so two women (of the old race who inhabited the earth before the BushmenN) sent some children to lift up the sleeping sun unawares and throw him into the sky, where he, becoming round, thenceforth remained, rendering the earth light and warm."

Notes: The Bushmen believe in an ancient race of people who preceded them, some of whom possessed magic powers, and some of whom have also been translated as stars into the sky.

“The Bushmen say also that the moon was made by a being who is both mantis and man, who, being inconvenienced by the darkness, threw up one of his shoes into the sky, and ordered the shoe to become the moon and to make light for him."

"These Victorian aborigines term Jupiter the Foot of Day, while the Bushmen call it Day's Heart. The Australians say that (either the whole, or part of) the Milky-Way is the smoke of the fires of the old race of people who preceded them. The Bushmen say that a girl belonging to the ancient race made the Milky Way by throwing wood-ashes into the sky.”

“The Australians say that the star Arcturus is the discoverer of the larvae of the wood-ant, of which they are very fond, and their teacher when and where to find it. The Bushmen say that Canopus is the rice-star, who comes carrying 'Bushman rice’.N By appearing it shows them when to seek it."

Notes: Bushman-rice " is what is commonly called ants' eggs but which are really the pupas or chrysalides of the ants.

"The Magellan clouds are, in this Australian mythology, believed to be male and female birds called 'Native Companions,' and by some of the Bushmen they are considered to be a male and female steenbok."

Some of these coincidences are very remarkable, especially that of the belief in the existence of an earlier race of men. Some of the Bushmen, however, still assert that remnants of this race yet exist in the deep and almost unknown recesses of the Kalahari. In corroboration of this latter assertion, an old traveller, Mr. A. A. Anderson, who has spent a number of years in the interior, assured the writer that in one of his expeditions into that portion of the country he came upon a small clan of very diminutive and degraded people, who declared that their forefathers had inhabited this part of the world before the Bushmen came into it.

At the time Mr. Anderson encountered them they acknowledged subjection to the Bushmen of the Kalahari, who are said to treat them not only as degraded vassals, but as an inferior grade of beings. Their habits, as described by this traveller, certainly approach nearer to those of wild animals than to those of the most abject people yet known in South Africa.

They build no huts of any description, but shelter themselves under bushes or projecting rocks, or the leeside of large boulders, while their food is frequently of the most loathsome description, as, with the exception of these people, it is only among the lower animals that the placenta is devoured after giving birth to their offspring. Further information with regard to this race would certainly be most interesting, and might possibly supply one of the missing links which are being so eagerly sought for in the world of science.

From the facts advanced in this chapter we would seem justified in concluding that the Bushman race belongs to a type of humanity altogether distinct from that of the negro or the Kaffir; that the races which display the closest affinities to them are some of the earlier races whose migrations radiated from the northern hemisphere as from a common centre ; that at the time of their separation from the main stock these races had arrived at the hunter state, and carried with them, into widely separated countries, similar germs of primitive art, and there, by means of their kindred artistic talents, they were enabled severally to leave memorials upon the rocks of the country, thus recording for future ages the different portions of the earth's surface which they had respectively occupied.


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2 #. THE GREAT ANTIQUITY OF THE BUSHMEN IN SOUTH AFRICA


We are fortunately able to obtain evidence upon the great antiquity of the Bushman race in South Africa from several independent sources, viz. the subsequent Hottentot migration, the geological evidence afforded by exhumed relics, and that which is demonstrated by some of their most ancient sculptures and paintings.

The subsequent southern migration of the Hottentot hordes clearly proves that such an enormous period had intervened between their onward movement and that which led to the original Bushman occupation, that the Hottentot tribes had advanced from the purely hunter state of their remote progenitors to that of the nomadic-pastoral ; their language had also undergone such a complete transformation that the new-comers were no longer able to understand the more primitive and therefore original tongue of the kindred race which had preceded them ; while they had also, in the interim, progressed in physical development, until, by the side of the taller Namaqua and Koraqua, the aboriginal Bushmen appeared a veritable race of pigmies.

A vast cycle of ages would doubtless be required to bring about radical changes of this kind. With this fact we must be duly impressed, if we consider but for a moment the extreme slowness with which such extensive modifications from their original type must necessarily have been accomplished, especially among races which were naturally unprogressive.

The second source of evidence with regard to the antiquity of the Bushman race in South Africa is from the geological record. From the mass of testimony which might be brought forward under this head we shall merely notice such a number of instances as must fully establish the point under consideration. Thus, on a farm in the Bloemfontein District a very finely shaped stone armlet was found embedded in situ, in digging out a reservoir four feet below the surface in undisturbed clay.

In excavating the superficial diamondiferous deposits at Du Toit's Pan, in Griqualand West, numerous Bushman beads made of ostrich eggshell were found at various depths ranging from six to eight feet, and in several spots resting on the bed of calcareous tufa. These local accumulations had evidently been very gradual in their formation. Multitudes of minute land shells were interspersed throughout them, the animals which inhabited them having evidently perished and been entombed whilst traversing the arid sand.

This place had evidently been a great station for the Bushmen, in the midst of the ostrich country, and had in all probability been a locality where the manufacture of ostrich eggshell beads had been carried on for generations, thus the abundance of them frequently met with in patches, as well as their having been found in various stages of manufacture. Some of those dug out from the lowest depths had become perfectly fossilized, and adhered to the tongue.

These mounds at one time formed a portion of the margin of an ancient lake, whose waters had drained away, the pan of the present day being its degenerated representative. The extent of this ancient lake is still well defined by a zone of sandy marls and calcareous deposits, and it was in some of the former and the more superficial red sandy clay that these relics of the ancient Bushmen were found.

Again, a stone hammer and another well-formed chipped stone implement were found by the writer in a bed of river-gravel on the banks of the Vaal, near Pniel, about fifty feet above the present stream, and which was evidently laid down at a time when the level of the river was much higher than the Vaal of to-day.

Near the mouth of Kleinemond, on the farm Fairfield, in the Division of Lower Albany, a number of pieces of rude Bushman pottery, stone implements, and semi-fossilised bones were found at a depth of sixteen feet, embedded in interlaminated and undisturbed beds of sand and marine shells.

In 1869 several Bushman maal-stones, stone implements, and an awl made of ivory were found at Poplar Grove, in the Division of Queenstown, in a bed of sub-angular gravel, embedded in a clayey matrix fourteen feet below the surface, and underlying three or four other undisturbed beds of clay and gravel. Associated with these were found the scapula and some of the ribs and grinders of a wart-hog. These bones had become so fossilised that, like some of the oldest fragments of ostrich eggshell at Du Toit's Pan, they adhered to the tongue.

In 1874, when the writer was examining the calcareous zone at the western end of the Roode Pan basin, about five or six miles from the great Kimberley Diamond Mine, he discovered in a bed of sandy marl a number of finely formed chipped implements, made of lydite. These implements must have been dropped there at the time the marl bed was in process of formation ; portions of it were interlaminated with belts of calcareous tufa, it was also capped with a layer of this rock of considerable, although varying, thickness, as shown below.

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This calcareous zone, similar to others surrounding so many of these great pan basins, and which evidently mark the margins of extensive lakes which once filled them, must have been deposited at a time when the level of the water was at least sixty feet higher than that of the present pan, and when a magnificent lake spread itself, for a considerable number of miles, over the intervening valley.

The hunters, therefore, who manufactured these stone weapons must have lived in a period so remote that the physical features of the country were vastly different from what we see at the present time. Numerous extensive lakes were dotted over it, and, as is proved by geological evidence, the Vaal itself did not flow in the same channel in which we now see it, as it has in two or three places cut through some of these very basins, which therefore proves that the makers of these implements must have existed before the river adopted its present course.

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This period represents the second or minor lake-period of South Africa, but which nevertheless must have been so far removed from the present that the intervening years would not have to be represented by thousands only, but tens of thousands, if we would form an approximate idea of their probable duration.

The evidence, therefore, here brought forward proves that the Bushman race must have occupied South Africa, continuously, for an enormous period. It is not necessary to suppose that all their tribes arrived at the same time : it is more than probable, judging from the migrations of other races, that they arrived in this portion of the continent by degrees, accelerated, more or less, by the pressure of other clans in their rear, a process which may have continued for a number of ages before they were overtaken by the stronger races.

We will now proceed to examine the next series of evidence, afforded by the remains of their rock sculptures or chippings, and their paintings. The latter, being of a more perishable nature, we cannot expect to find escaping the ravages of time, caused either by exposure to the atmosphere or the disintegration of the rock itself, where the paintings have been executed upon the somewhat friable sandstones of the upper Lacustrine or Karoo-formation, as long as the more durable chippings, which have generally been worked into the surface of some of the hardest igneous rocks.

An opportunity was offered in examining some of the paintings in a large cave in the Boloko or Vecht Kop, near the southern border of Basutoland, of making an approximate calculation as to the probable age of the most ancient artistic productions of this kind found there. The most recent of the paintings represents an attack of a commando upon a considerable body of Bushmen. The writer was fortunate enough to obtain the history of this picture. The attack had been made upon this cave some forty years previously by a combined force of Boers and Basutu, with the intention of driving out the old inhabitants of the place ; and immediately afterwards this drawing was made by one of the Bushman artists, evidently with a view of commemorating the event.

The painting, like most of their last productions, which were executed at a time when they were constantly harassed and driven about by their enemies, was rudely done, but still the action of the figures was well marked. Several of the Bushmen are armed with guns ; one or two are shouting out, defying the attacking party to come on. The rock upon which it is painted is a soft friable sandstone, and a certain amount of disintegration has taken place since the representation was finished, amounting in places to the eighth of an inch.

The most ancient paintings preserved depict a group of elands, beautifully and artistically finished, showing that the artist had both time and leisure at his command to finish them with an amount of care which is admirable, thus affording a striking illustration of a state of rest enjoyed by the Bushmen during the halcyon days of undisturbed occupation, compared to the season of turmoil and tribulation which fell upon them after the invasion of the stronger races.

Portions of the animals have disappeared from the same natural decay, we have spoken of, of the rock surface. The process of disintegration, from the sheltered position of the walls of the cave where the paintings are found, defended as they are against rain and similar atmospheric agencies, must have been tolerably uniform. Such being the case, if we calculate the depth of the erosions and destruction to have progressed at the same ratio as in the preceding instance, it would give a probable antiquity of about four hundred years to this last group of animals. It is quite certain that the same cause of destruction would have entirely obliterated any earlier paintings.

At a rock shelter on the banks of the Imvani, in the Queenstown Division, as many as five distinct series of paintings were found, one over the other. The old Bushmen assert that the productions of an artist were always respected as long as any recollection of him was preserved in his tribe : during this period no one, however daring, would attempt to deface his paintings by placing others over them. But when his memory was forgotten, some aspirant after artistic fame appropriated the limited rock surface of the shelter, adapted for such a display of talent, for his own performances, and unceremoniously painted over the efforts of those who had preceded him.

If we calculate that the memory of any artist would be preserved among his people for at least three generations, as every Bushman tribe prided itself and boasted of the wall decorations of its chief cave, it would give a probable antiquity of about five hundred years to the oldest found in the Imvani rock shelter. Many of them are doubtless of a very much greater age, but they afford no means by which their greater antiquity can be gauged.

The case, however, is different with the rock chippings or sculptures on the banks of the Gumaap and the Vaal. Strangely enough Mr. Moffat has ascribed these productions to the Bachoana, and employs their existence as an evidence of the extended occupation of his favoured tribe in early days ! He informs us that they are called Lokualo, a word from which the one used to express writing and printing is derived. He further states, in describing those which he examined, that these Lokualo are various figures chipped upon stones with fiat surfaces. "

These marks," he says, " are made by striking one stone on another till curved lines, circles, ovals, and zigzag figures are impressed upon its surface, exhibiting the appearance of a white stripe of about an inch broad, like a confused coil of rope." These, Mr. Moffat imagined, were done by Bachoana herd boys, and that as they were to be found to the vicinity of the colonial boundaries of those days, that is, to the present District of Victoria West, therefore these Bachoana tribes must have extended much farther to the southward than their present limits.

In these deductions Mr. Moffat is clearly mistaken, for there can be no question but that these relics are all of undoubted Bushman origin. All those examined by the writer, and they have been a multitude, in the valley of the Lower Vaal and in Griqualand West beyond Daniel's Kuil towards Kuruman, are also unmistakably the work of Bushmen ; they therefore fall to the ground as an evidence of early Bachoana occupation, proving the very opposite to such a position.

It is quite possible that Mr. Moffat may have seen some imitations by the Bachoana, the same as attempts at painting are sometimes found in Bushman caves, the handiwork of ambitious Kaffirs ; but in such cases the practised eye can never be deceived for a moment. The inaccuracy of outline, the perfect caricature of the thing represented, and the crudeness of the materials stamp at once the nationality of the artist.

As it is with the imitation paintings, so it is with the copies of chippings, the want of meaning and design at once shows their spurious origin ; while the imitations are always, without exception, the most recent productions of that nature.

Copies of Bushman chippings have been obtained as far north as the Mariqua and branches of the Limpopo, while from the evidence of the earlier Koranas and Griquas the Bachoana had only arrived as far to the southward as about Kuruman when the former first came in contact with them, the entire intervening country being occupied alone by Bushmen.

In examining these primitive works of art, we find that they have been done, similar to the paintings, at different periods, from the most recent, which exhibit the whitish coloured outlines described by Mr. Moffat, to those ancient ones where the lines of chippings have, from length of time, become so oxidised that they have once more assumed the original colour of the exposed rock.

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On the banks of the Gumaap and the Vaal the rocks which have been utilised for this kind of ornamentation have been, almost universally, the igneous and highly felspathic Vaal variety, which is frequently associated with beds of an amygdaloidal character. These rocks are amongst the hardest and most durable in the country, possessing such power of resistance to the effects of the atmosphere that the most recent of the Bushman chippings found upon them, and which are now from forty to fifty years old, look as fresh as if they had been worked into the surface of the rock but a few weeks ago.

As it is with the paintings, so it is with these rude attempts to sculpture, the more ancient, as a rule, can be distinguished by the boldness and correctness of their outlines, which clearly evinces that the labour of chipping out such delineations with merely a piece of pointed stone must have been one of considerable time and patience.

At Blaauw Bank, on the Gumaap, and at several places in the valley of the Vaal, these same Vaal rocks are found perfectly polished and striated, the effect and indubitable proof of a remote glacial period in the geological history of the country ; and it is a remarkable fact that, although these spots must have doubtlessly passed for years unheeded by men calling themselves civilised, their wonderful and unwonted appearance had evidently produced a strong effect upon the Bushman mind, for, struck with their unexplainable smoothness, he has covered the space with mystic symbols. This is especially the case at Blaauw Bank, where hundreds of such symbolic designs are found.

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They are, however, of so ancient a character that the re-oxidisation of the engraved rock is complete.

This is strikingly noticeable in the last named locality, whereby hundreds of hieroglyphical emblems are found. They may be divided into two distinct series, the oldest of which are evidently of great age. There is a marked difference between them and the paintings: in the latter one is frequently found superimposed upon the other, while in the former no two figures are ever found overlapping one another, or even touching.

The figures thus engraved on the rock have evidently been held sacred by the generations which followed the original designer. There is very little doubt but that many of them conveyed a mystic meaning to the initiated ; this seems confirmed by the frequency of certain forms, and the repetition of particular numbers. When the first series of figures were finished, it would appear as if no additions were for a long period made to them. Then copies, or reproductions of the original symbolic forms, were sparingly introduced, filling up the intermediate spaces, by a generation of artists living at a period infinitely more recent than that of those who had gone before, as the lines of which their productions are composed are only semi-oxidised.

After this no other figures were added, except a few insignificant ones at widely scattered intervals, belonging to the most recent period of Bushman art, and evidently after all the mystic lore embodied in the ancient symbols of their remote ancestors had been lost to their race.

Unfortunately in this instance we have no sufficiently satisfactory data to make an approximate calculation as to the probable age of the oldest of these designs, but if we are to be guided by the slight change in those which we know to be the most recent, many centuries must have elapsed since the primitive Bushmen first engraved their antique symbols upon these ancient polished and striated rocks.

The extreme antiquity of some of these designs is, however, clearly evinced by the fissures which have been formed in the apparently impenetrable rocks since the earliest designs were chased upon them, thus, upon the large island in the Vaal opposite Riverton, which is formed of an ancient roche moutonne stretching across the channel of the present river, there are a number of various chipped figures, some of them very boldly executed.

One of the oldest was that of an eland, done on a larger scale than any other representation of an animal found ; but since its completion a large fissure has been worn through the rock, upwards of nine inches in breadth in its broadest part and about eighteen inches in depth.

When we consider the astonishing hardness of these rocks, and the capability which they evince of resisting atmospheric and other influences, and also that they are allied in some portions of the Vaal basin to similar porphyritic rocks to those employed in the construction of the ancient palace temples of Egypt, whose ruins have withstood the ravages of some twenty-five centuries, we cannot help but imagine that we are justified in giving at least an equal antiquity to the great eland of the Riverton island of the Vaal. Many other instances might be brought forward, but we have already produced sufficient evidence from ethnological, geological, and artistic points of view to prove the position advanced as the subject of this section of our inquiry, viz. the great antiquity of the Bushman race in South Africa.

We have already learnt from native traditions that they believed a still earlier race preceded them, and that up to within a short time ago there was a miserable remnant which professed to belong to that race, but if such were the case it is quite certain that they were of so degraded a type that they left no more impression upon the country than the wild animals which inhabited it ; and that the Bushmen, although they magnified them in their traditions as excelling in power and wisdom, nevertheless in actual life looked down upon them as a race of inferior beings.

The Bushmen of Southern Africa

Having arrived at these conclusions, we will now treat of the Bushmen more particularly as a South African race, together with such fragments of their local history as have been rescued from oblivion, and the reminiscences of the desperate struggle they made for existence after their ancient southern domains were invaded by the stronger races.

The Bushmen of Southern Africa have been described by their enemies, not only as being " the lowest of the low," but as the most treacherous, vindictive, and untameable savages on the face of the earth : a race void of all generous impulses, and little removed from the wild beasts with which they associated, one only fitted to be exterminated like noxious vermin, as a blot upon nature, upon whom kindness and forbearance were equally misplaced and thrown away. Such being the sweeping charges made against them, we will under the present head, among other things, inquire how far these allegations are justified ; and whether the doom which followed was such as they merited from their own inherent and unendurable viciousness.

These people, who were severally known to the old colonists and early writers as the Bosjesmans, the Boschismans, and Bushmen, appear to have adopted among themselves the name of ‘Khuai’, which is also the same as that given to the natural apron for which the women of pure Bushman and Hottentot races are distinguished ; and it was thus probable that the appellation 'Quae-'quae, or perhaps more properly ‘Khuai-’Khuai or 'Khuai-’quae — the people of the Apron, was derived.

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From the evidence of 'Kwaba, alias Toby, a very old Bushman of 'Kou-'kou or Bethulie, the Bushmen of his tribe were called 'K'ay (? possibly 'kwa or 'qua, the men or the people). 'Kue was the designation of a single Bushman. Hottentots, such as the Koranas and Griquas, were known by the name of 'Kuara.

With regard to the names by which the Bushmen are known to the tribes of the interior, according to Backhouse, some of the Bachoana call the Bushmen Ba-roa, which he explains as "The men or people of the bow." The Basutu also, so M. Arbousset informs us, use the same term, Ba-roa, the meaning of which he gives as “the men of the Bushes," while Miss L. E. Lemue writes,N "A strange fact is that among all the tribes of Central Africa the Bushmen are called Ba-roa, which means " of the South ; "

Baroa signifying the south. It is certain, however, from the evidence collected from native sources, that the Bushmen are styled Ba-wa by some of the Basutu clans, and Mur-ra by the Bataung. Stanley states that the dwarf-race of the far interior is called Watwa or Batwa ; and as a remarkable coincidence the Bushmen of the south are called A-ba-twa by the Tambukis, which, they assured the writer, was not derived from their own language, but was of Bushman origin.

Notes: Private Notes of Charles Sirr Orpen, from letter of Miss L. E. Lemue, daughter of the French missionary of that name.

The Bushman chiefs of the great tribes had their distinctive tribal emblems, which seemed to answer the same purpose as the Siboko of the Bachoana and Basutu, and from which it is not improbable that the custom of such Hottentot tribes as Koranas of taking the names of various animals such as the Zeekoes (hippopotami), the Cat-people, the Scorpions, the Rats, the Springboks, etc., was derived. But the difference between the artistic hunter and the nomadic pastoral Hottentot was that the former employed positive emblazonment or representation of the emblem which distinguished the particular branch of their race, conspicuously painted in some central part of the great cave of the chief of the clan.

These tribal paintings were held sacred, and it was only occasionally that some profane artist would venture to place any other upon them. Unhappily most of these, together with the other cave paintings, have been ruthlessly destroyed ; fortunately, up to a short time ago a few striking illustrations were preserved, of most of which the writer was able to secure copies. Thus he found —

The Cave of the Python, near the Gwatchu, on the banks of the Zwart-Kei ;
The Cave of the Serpent, (a drawing upwards of seven feet long), on the banks of the Klip-plaats river, near Whittlesea ;
The Cave of the Eland (almost life-size), in the Stormberg, near Dordrecht ;
The Cave of the Red Serpent, near Bad Fontein, Orange River ;
The Cave of the White Rhinoceros and Serpent, near Washbank Spruit ;
The Cave of the Hippopotamus, on the farm Lichtenstein, Orange River;
The Cave of the great Black Serpent and Elephant, in Rockwood Glen, Orange River ;
The Cave of the one-horned Rhinoceros, in Eland's Kloof, Orange River ;
The Cave of the White Hippopotamus, in Knecht's Kloof, Koesberg ;
The Cave of the Ostrich, near Oliphant's Been ;
The Cave of the Puff-Adder, near Junction Hotel, Division of Queenstown.

Others could be mentioned, but the above will be sufficient to illustrate what has been asserted. The writer has been informed by several old Bushmen that all the great caves, that is those which were the residences of the head chiefs, were, at one time, thus distinguished ; and that in speaking of the people who inhabited them, or all those who acknowledged the authority of the same ruler, they were designated according to the tribal emblem with which the cave itself was ornamented.

Many have stated that the Bushmen were entirely without any form of government. This is altogether an erroneous idea ; and was probably formed from what the writers saw of the broken, scattered, and half-annihilated tribes which were to be met with along the exposed frontiers, after their fathers had been driven about and hunted for a couple of generations, and when each miserable fugitive group was forced to look after its own individual safety without reference to any other portion of the persecuted tribe.

The Bushman race was evidently, at one time, divided into a number of large tribes occupying tolerably well-defined tracts of country, which they looked upon as their own ancestral hunting-grounds ; and any intrusion upon these was sure to be resented. These branch-tribes were again divided, although they had but one chief, who was looked upon as paramount over the whole territory belonging to the tribe. The subdivisions, or minor clans, were under the guidance of lesser captains, who, nevertheless, seemed to possess almost uncontrolled authority over their respective kraals. The great cave represented the dignity and glory of the entire tribe, and it formed the grand centre around which they congregated when the different clans were threatened with a common danger.

As we proceed with our investigation we shall discover that they showed a devotion to their chief (a feeling which appeared to be almost entirely wanting among the purely Hottentot tribes) which could not be excelled, as they invariably gathered round him in the hour of danger, and fell to a man rather than desert him in his extremity. Nor was it only for their attachment and loyalty to their chiefs that they were distinguished, but for an almost passionate fondness for the rocks and glens in whose caves they and their fathers had lived probably for generations.

Many instances might be mentioned where a few wretched fugitives, after their tribe had been mercilessly butchered, have, after hopelessly wandering about for a time, stealthily returned to their ancestral cave, hiding themselves among the rocks by day and stealing out in the early morning and evening to gather a few roots and tubers to prolong their wretched existence, obtaining a little water from a neighbouring spring, and occasionally a little honey from some wild bees' nest among the fissures of their rocky asylum ; and have thus existed for years, tenaciously clinging to the spot, until feeble and tottering with age, they have sunk from sheer exhaustion and passed away in some hidden nook near where they were born ; or too feeble to defend themselves, they have been torn to pieces by the ravenous beasts which had made their lairs amid the romantic retreats which had once resounded with the noise of revelry and moonlight dancings of their forefathers.

In judging of their character, there are unfortunately few records left of them in their undisturbed state, and most of the intelligent writers who have treated of this subject visited them after the fierce and cruel crusade had commenced against them, and which, having once been taken in hand, was not allowed to cease until their extermination was rendered a certainty.

It was when their precarious means of subsistence failed that the Bushmen of the frontiers were driven to the necessity of hazarding a toilsome and dangerous expedition of plunder across the colonial boundaries. Such a mode of life naturally leads to cruelty. Although it is a crime in the eyes of political justice for a starving family, driven by imperious want to the necessity of taking the property of another, still in the law of nature the offence must be venial ; but the Bushmen for their conduct had not only the plea of nature and humanity, but that also of retribution.

They were driven out of their own country, the vast herds of game which once afforded them abundance of food were ruthlessly destroyed, their children were seized and carried into slavery by the people upon whom they subsequently committed their depredations, and on whom they almost naturally took every occasion for exercising revenge.

That the Bushmen were not always as barbarously ferocious as they were afterwards charged with being is proved by the fact that forty years previous to Barrow's visit, as was shown by the testimony of men then living, they frequented the colony boldly and openly, begged and stole, and were troublesome, just as the Kaffirs were afterwards, but they never attempted the life of any one. They proceeded not to this extremity until the Government unwisely and unjustly suffered the colonists to exercise an unlimited power over the lives of those who were taken prisoners. It failed at the same time to fix any bounds to the extent of the expeditions made against them, which certainly ought not to have gone beyond the limits of the colony.

When these circumstances are viewed impartially, it would almost appear that even their cruelty admitted of some palliation. Their studied barbarity, however, which ultimately extended itself to every living creature that pertained to the farmers, indicated a very altered disposition from that of their nation at large. Thus when they seized a Hottentot guarding his master's cattle, not content with putting him to immediate death, they tortured him by every means of cruelty their invention could frame, as drawing out his bowels, tearing off his nails, scalping, and other acts equally savage. Even the poor animals they stole were treated in the most barbarous and unfeeling manner, driven up the steep sides of mountains, where they were allowed to remain without any kind of food or water till they were either killed for use or dropped for want of means of supporting nature.

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Had a humane course of action been adopted from the beginning, instead of ruthlessly hounding them out of their country, how different might have been the history of this primitive race ; but '"'the greed for increasing pasturage was paramount, every available fountain was seized and occupied, and every right of the ancient owners unceremoniously trampled on. When all this is taken into consideration it is not to be wondered at that they should become brutish and miserable, that they should make their home in the desert, the unfrequented mountain pass, or the secluded recesses of a cave or ravine.

That in the deep hatred which was ultimately aroused against all those who were gradually, yet still most surely, despoiling them of their cherished hunting grounds, the Bushmen were frequently hurried into deeds of violence, at which humanity shudders, cannot be doubted ; but, as we have stated, the rights of this ancient hunter race were entirely ignored by the intruders of every race and colour.

Each appears to have asked with Lichtenstein, " What right has the Bushman to land, of which he does not know the value ? " And then these stronger races of men considered that all the blessings of life were summed up in the possession of sleek herds of cattle, with plenty of grass and water to pasture them, never troubling their heads for a moment to reflect whether it might not be possible for others to exist who cared for none of these things, and whose only glory was their wild, but cherished, freedom to follow over their boundless hunting grounds the swarming game which inhabited them, and who prized the rocks and caves where their fathers had dwelt above all the waving com lands in the universe.

It was, therefore, in the never-ending war of races which ensued, where all, however much they differed from one another, were against the Bushman, that it merged into one of the fiercest intensity, in which an irrepressible determination was shown, on the one hand, to maintain, at whatever cost, and by every means their untutored minds dictated to them, the lands they considered unquestionably their own ; while, on the other hand, as the old race were stumbling blocks to the coveted possession, an equal determination was exhibited to exterminate, if possible, the last vestige of those who so resolutely opposed their unjustifiable usurpation. The struggle ended, as all such conflicts ever do, in the ultimate triumph of the strongest, while in its course little forbearance or mercy was shown on either side.

Notwithstanding the Bushmen have been charged by their enemies with a total want of all kindness of feeling towards any other race than their own, and that every one that fell into their hands, even from the earliest times, was put to death without mercy, it is quite certain that this was not the case when the Bushmen held undisturbed possession of their ancient territories.

The evidence on this point is clear and distinct, and it was not until later times that they evinced that merciless and bloodthirsty disposition which so many have been eager to ascribe to them. The unanimous testimony of the old Kaffirs, Bachoana, Leghoya, and Basutu, as well as of the Bushmen themselves, affirms that this was far from being the case.

On the contrary, during the murderous native wars, when so many of the Bachoana and other tribes were half annihilated and scattered, in many instances the few unhappy outcasts that escaped destruction fled into Bushman territory, where they not only received protection and an asylum, but conforming to the Bushmen's habits and customs, wives were given to them and their daughters intermarried again with the Bushmen, and it was doubtless such infusions of foreign blood which gave a different physical character to some of the families of their leading captains, in contradistinction to those of pure Bushman type.

This good understanding continued until these refugees, increasing in numbers, and some, at last, bringing the remnants of their herds of cattle with them, began to band together and assume a sovereignty over portions of the country. Then, as they grew in strength, they turned upon those who had first given shelter to them when they were helpless and miserable fugitives, and strove by every means in their power to dislodge the ancient owners, who were at once deemed wild and untameable animals when they attempted to prevent the invaders from doing so.

As soon as the Bushmen saw these strangers beginning to intrude themselves in large bodies in every direction, with a determination to make permanent settlements, a spirit of opposition was aroused within them. The game, which was as precious to the old hunters as herds of tame cattle were to their aggressors, was destroyed or driven away ; and cattle-lifting almost as a natural consequence took the place of stalking the eland, the quagga, or the elephant. Capture and recapture, injuries and retaliation, soon grew into a war of extermination against the weaker and smaller race, whose unconquerable spirit might be crushed and annihilated, but seldom taught to submit to the trammels which the invading and conquering races were desirous of imposing upon them.

From all the evidence that can be obtained, the Bushmen in their undisturbed state appear never to have been aggressors. This doubtless arose from the fact of their having been the primitive inhabitants of the land, and therefore having never displaced any other race of men from its still more ancient possessions. The only rivals they had to contend with for dominion and supremacy were such animals as the mailed rhinoceros and lordly lion.

From the traditions of some of their clans they appear to have believed that, from an unknown time, they were the only men upon the earth. Some of the more isolated tribes retained this belief until a very recent period, for in the early days they seldom trespassed beyond the confines of their respective hunting grounds, and the same traditionary creed was handed down, unaltered, for many generations.

The gradual intrusion of the Hottentot tribes along the western coast, the pressure of the Bachoana tribes from the central north, the eruption of the more warlike Kaffirs from the eastward and along the south-eastern coast, the advent of the still more formidable pale faces from the very sea itself, rudely dispelled these long-cherished ideas wherever the original inhabitants of the soil came in contact with the invading races. " Bushman depredations " were unheard of as long as their ancient hunting-grounds were unmolested. Their oldest paintings are chiefly representations of the excitement of the chase or the joys and pleasures of their numerous dances.

They appear never to have had great wars against each other ; sudden quarrels among rival huntsmen, ending in lively skirmishes, which owing to their nimbleness and presence of mind caused little damage to life or limb, appear to have been the extent of their individual or tribal differences. Even an habitually quarrelsome man was not tolerated amongst them ; he became an intolerable nuisance, and his own friends assisted in putting the obnoxious individual on one side ; while their very enemies acknowledge them to have been, when left to themselves, a merry, cheerful race.

Their evening feast being ended, dancing during the first watches of the night followed as a matter of course. But when their ancient hunting-grounds were invaded from various quarters, great changes came over their social condition, and at length a determined opposition was shown by them against further encroachments. Finding, however, that they were unable to repel their invaders, while their chief means of subsistence was being destroyed, they levied, in their turn, unconditional blackmail upon the possessions of those they no longer looked upon with friendly eyes. Then it was that resistance, and capture, and recapture followed.

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Bushmen fell under the clubs, the assagais, or the bullets of the pursuers ; and these, in their turn, frequently experienced the fatal effects of the poisoned darts that were discharged at them. Organised attempts were made to dislodge the obnoxious Bushmen from their native strongholds ; sometimes these attacks were repelled, at others the cave dwellers were overpowered, and a considerable portion of a tribe would be destroyed.

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Driven from the fastnesses in one range of mountains, those who remained fled for refuge to another, mingling with other tribes already in possession. One piece of country cleared, the encroachments steadily continued, with a continually intensifying animosity on either side. Again dispossessed, again driven back, the marauding parties of the survivors would penetrate again into the old hunting-grounds which had been so violently wrested from them, to make reprisals upon the flocks and herds of those who had so unceremoniously monopolized them. These raids were pushed for a considerable distance into the old country once occupied by them. It was a never-ending war of encroachment on the one hand, and retaliation on the other.

This unswerving determination on the part of the Bushmen was put down to their wild animal propensities and untameableness, and it was considered as a necessary part of civilisation to look with leniency on the wholesale purloining of territory on the one side, yet still to paint the character of the weaker and much-wronged race in the blackest possible colours.

Their incomprehensible attachment to their original mode of life, their strong love of the wild freedom they had ever possessed, were considered as unquestionable evidence of their unimprovable nature, and the members of the formidable expeditions that were from time to time launched against them seemed impressed with the idea that the cause of humanity would be best served by annihilating a race with such peculiar tendencies ; and thus they were driven from stronghold to stronghold, rendered more and more desperate, until the last remnant of their most powerful tribes found a temporary asylum in the most inaccessible portions of the Maluti and Quathlamba mountains.

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HABITS OF THE BUSHMEN



To a Bushman, his mode of living, as long as he could obtain plenty of food, was in reality no more miserable than that of other savage races. He had no invidious object of comparison to place against his condition. When one feasted, they all partook ; and when one hungered, they all equally suffered. They took no thought for the morrow. With them it was either a feast or a famine. Their power of endurance, as well as that of digestion, was quite wonderful. Yet many instances of longevity are to be found at the present day among those who are still living with the Boers.

Notwithstanding their forbidding appearance, they possessed a number of savage virtues, which showed that they were not so utterly worthless as many have delighted in depicting them. Not the least noteworthy of these was their implicit faithfulness in any trust imposed upon them. We have already noticed their loyalty to their chiefs, their strong attachment to the place of their birth, their hospitality to strangers, their unselfishness in their division of food, their self-sacrifice and devotion in their attempts to rescue their wives and children from a life of bondage which they abhorred, their unflinching bravery, and their love of freedom.

Having thus gained some insight as to what was their true character in their originally undisturbed state, and what they doubtless would have remained under a more just and generous mode of treatment than that which was mercilessly meted out to them, we will now proceed to make some inquiry into such of their more domestic habits as may give us a better view of their inner life, when, devoid of fear from outer enemies, they were isolated among the rocks and plains of their ancestors.

In commencing this portion of our investigation, it may be as well to notice that from the evidence of Kwaba, alias Toby, the language spoken by that division which we may call the Sculptors or kopje-dwellers, from the fact of their selecting a hill or mound as their permanent place of residence, whence they obtained an extensive view of the surrounding country, but which contained no caves or rock shelters, in contradistinction to the Painters, or true cave-dwellers, was so different from that spoken by the latter, that it was not understood by them.

Upon this subject he says : " I can speak the Bushman language well," that is, the language of the branch of painters, " but," he continues, " I cannot understand the language of the Bushmen of the Gumaap or Riet river," — who belong to the tribes of sculptors. " Their language is too double."

From this it would appear that this division of the Bushman family has, in all probability, retained the more primitive form of their original language in their southward migration, while with those who moved more to the westward the language had become so modified that when the two streams again met in Central Southern Africa, so long a period had elapsed that they had become unintelligible to one another. This, however, is a question which must be left to some future philologist to decide.

We have already noticed the difference in the habitations of the two main branches of the Bushmen. Those who were the cave-dwellers and painters arrived at a higher degree of artistic talent than any other portion of their race, while their cave dwellings afforded more comfortable shelters from the weather than the fragile structures used by those tribes living on the more open kopjes. The towns, for so the stations of the large tribes might be termed in comparison with the movable dwelling-places of the small nomadic clans of the hunters of the plains, contained from one to two hundred huts.

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Two excellent examples of stations of this kind are to be found between Kimberley and Klip Drift or Barkly, on the Vaal, in Griqualand West. The one is on the outlying kopje near what is termed the Half-Way House on the road to Pniel, the other on the kopje immediately behind the Mission Station at Pniel itself.

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One or two others are to be found in the neighbourhood, but these were evidently the headquarters of this particular tribe. At both places there are a number of chippings, chiefly representations of animals : the head and neck of a giraffe at the Pniel kopje is remarkably fine, both on account of its large size and the correctness of its outline. It was evidently the grand figure of the tribe, and the spot might fitly be named from it — after the fashion of the caves we have mentioned — " the Camp of the Giraffe."

The position of most of the huts which covered the crests of both these hills is marked by a semi-circle of stones with the opening towards the east ; while that which formed the residence of the chief can also be distinguished from the rest, not only because it is larger, but the rocks also around it are very much more ornamented than any in the immediate neighbourhood of the others, while two or three smaller ones are placed close against it, forming probably the sleeping apartments of some of his wives.

An open space was left around this, and here it is that the carvings on the rocks are the thickest. Beyond this the huts of his people evidently formed an irregular ring around him ; while detached from the main body, the sites of several smaller groups of huts are still marked on the flanks of the kopje, apparently so placed for the purpose of acting as out-posts, so that the town itself should not be exposed to sudden attack either from the multitude of lions which once swarmed over the plains, or, in later years, from more formidable foes who then invaded the country.

These semicircles of stones show that the diameter of the general huts was about four feet, and of those of the chiefs nearly five. Their framework was formed of a few bent withes, and this again was covered with rush or grass mats. These were most commonly made of rushes laid longitudinally side by side and then sewn neatly and closely together with either a twine made of the back-sinews of an antelope or a kind of cord composed of rushes bruised and closely twisted together. The holes through which the twine or cord was passed were perforated through the body of the rush by means of a bone awl made for the purpose. These huts were more in the shape of magnified Dutch ovens than that of anything else.

The huts used by the men of the plains differed somewhat from those just described. They were not strengthened at the bottom with the row of stones used in the more permanent dwellings. They were taken down in the morning, the mats rolled up, the sticks tied into a bundle, and carried from place to place after the game, and again pitched at night at their fresh halting place. Campbell describes these dwellings as the most primitive of any of the nations he had visited. Moffat, who met some of the fugitive clans after so many of those on the frontier had been destroyed by the colonists, found some who did not possess even this flimsy shelter against the winds and storms.

Their mode of sleeping exhibited their primitive stage of existence, as instead of stretching themselves out like most other races, they coiled themselves up into as small a space as possible. Mr. Jan Wessels, who resided north of the Orange river at the time the country was filled with Bushmen, informed the writer that on visiting any of their caves, it was possible, although all the inhabitants were absent at the time of the visit, to tell the exact number of men, women, and children who lived in it, as each of them made a small round hollow hole, like a nest, into which they individually coiled themselves, each man, woman, and child having his or her own allotted form, to which they retired when they wished to sleep.

In cold, rainy, or snowy weather, they would not make the least attempt to get up or alter their position for a day or two together, but would remain in a state as if of semi-torpor until an amelioration of the inclement weather took place, which apparently revivified them. Then first the men would be seen creeping out, with their never-for-gotten bows and arrows, and after a little time the women and children would make their appearance. Certain connubial rites, and other operations of nature which in more civilised communities decency taught men to reserve for the strictest privacy, were performed openly among them.

The wife constructed for herself a fireplace with three round stones ; she also fashioned, varnished, and baked the few earthenware pots she had to use, manufactured the frail rush mats, under which her family found shelter from the wind and heat of the sun ; she suckled her infants and decked them with care ; in fine weather she was seen going in haste to the fields to gather roots, especially a small round white bulb called uintje (iris edulis), which together with locusts that she gathered and dried in the summer, the chrysalides of the ants which she took from the anthills, constituted with the game taken by her husband their only subsistence.

The man generally cooked by himself, and the woman for herself ; but whenever a pot was to be emptied, all the kraal gathered round it and partook of it. Thus they went from hut to hut until there remained nothing more to be consumed.

Sometimes the men, who would be absent hunting on the vast plains the whole of the day, would there eat to their hearts' content of the game they had killed, and only bring food to their wives when they had had their fill. On such occasions, when they returned in the evening with empty hands, they generally put on sulky faces, and pretended to be knocked up or annoyed.

The cunning wife, however, soon detected from her husband's appearance that he was not hungry ; besides the woman was always on the watch, and saw the smoke rising on the distant flats when the meat was cooking ; and so she received him very angrily, pulled and threw down the hut in her rage, and would not suffer him to partake of the ants or whatever supper she had madeN. But in their undisturbed state this condition of affairs did not often exist, during that period there was not only an abundance of game, but, as a rule, an abundance of food also; and the spoils of the chase amply rewarded the fatigues of the huntsmen.

Then it was, as soon as supper was over, the women with the children and the young men commenced some of their numerous dances, which were continued until deep into the night, when, at length weary, they retired to their little hollow nests lined with grass or straw, in which they coiled themselves to sleep.

Note: Memoir of Miss L. C. Lemue, from Notes of Charles Sirr Orpen.

The vanity of the Bushwomen was just as great as that which, characterises women in all ages and all lands. They evinced with their ostrich eggshell beads and springbok kaross as much desire for decoration and display as any others. Their heads were always uncovered, sometimes even shaven, but a quantity of hair was left and arranged as a tuft on the crown, and always plastered with ochre, fat, and the powder of an aromatic plant called buchu. This they carried in a little skin bag or small pot or box made of the segment of a horn, slung to the waist for ordinary use.

They speckled their faces and breasts with red and yellow paint and white clay. The men also indulged in this fashion of painting their bodies, sometimes in zebra-like parallel lines, sometimes the lines were drawn diagonally across their bodies, at others they covered themselves with a series similar to chevronels, and again others employed a combination of these different modes of ornamentation.

Besides painting, the women adorned their foreheads with a narrow band of thread, not very closely plaited, but elegantly covered with rings made from ostrich eggshell ; and in addition to these fillets, bracelets, girdles, and long fibrous aprons, which in some cases hung down from their waists to their feet, were made and ornamented with the same. Their industry was clearly illustrated in the manufacture of these shell beads and rings, upon which an infinite amount of labour, patience, and time must necessarily have been bestowed in their production. Nor did they, besides these, despise any other ornament they could obtain.

They further adorned themselves, as do the Orientals, with a lace or cord of threaded ostrich eggshell beads, which passed through the nostril and was tied at the back of the head, thus forming a festoon over either cheek.n Above their ancles and wrists they fastened little oblong bells, made of the skin of the springbok well dried, and which, by means of pebbles enclosed in them, produced a sound very agreeable to their taste.

Note: 1 The Coast-Kafiir and other kindred tribes, and even the Hottentots themselves, do not appear to have ever arrived, before their contact with the European, at that stage of mechanical skill which enabled them to manufacture ornaments of this kind for themselves, in lieu of which they used such natural productions as the brilliant coloured red seeds of the Kaffir-boom and different kinds of sea-shells, especially such as the Nerita, Bulla, and Cowrie.

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The men, besides the custom of painting their bodies with various patterns (a custom which necessarily fell into disuse when their invaders commenced breaking up their clans and hunting them from mountain to mountain), wore a small piece of skin for a girdle, a very scanty springbok cloak, frequently cut and ornamented in different patterns, together with sundry anklets, arm-and bracelets, and sometimes necklaces, these ornaments seeming to indicate respective rank.

After their territories had been invaded and much of their game had been destroyed or driven away, they were sometimes reduced to such extremities as to be obliged to cook and eat old skins. Sometimes they were afraid to go into the plains to hunt, on account of their enemies. They had a great dread of being captured or shot by the Koranas or the Dutch, and there were critical times when nothing would induce them to leave their retreats. The very sight of a white face threw them into an agony of fear. Every time M. Arbousset managed to get near them, they raised loud cries, and sought to flee or conceal themselves.

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It was at this time, and under these circumstances, that this earnest missionary found some of their huts constructed of branches of trees, and others of another kind among the rocks, with which they might at a distance be readily confounded. All these consisted of three sticks stuck in the ground, and of two small mats, one of which served as a screen behind the stakes, the other as a roof ; and under these poor shelters the unfortunates reposed, huddled pell-mell together. When asked why they did not build better huts like the Basutu, they answered that such huts attached them too much to one spot, that their enemies might burn them all alive in these huts, or kill them in some way before they could get out ; that they would not be able to put them aside during the day to prevent them being seen.

They assured M. Arbousset that, since their country had been invaded, they slept with their feet out of their kaross, that they could more readily spring up and escape in case of an alarm ; that they did not long remain in one place, partly owing to the migration of the game, and partly that no one might know where they were to be found. For this last reason they went in very small companies, without dogs, and with the least noise and bustle possible.

The Bushmen who, through their friendly intercourse with the Leghoya, the first of the Bachoana tribes with whom the aborigines of the Vaal river came in contact, had in the early part of the present century become possessed of small herds of cattle, and were gradually passing from the hunter to the pastoral stage, had long before the time of M. Arbousset's visit in 1836 been reduced to a state of destitution ; and many of them had been wantonly butchered by the marauders who had invaded their country from different quarters.

By this time also an additional calamity had befallen them. The Koranas, finding that they could exchange them for guns, ammunition, and brandy with the old colonists, commenced kidnapping their children ; and a few years after the commencement of this traffic, some of the wandering Boers, following the example of their fathers along the Bushman borders of the Old Colony, made forays upon them for this express purpose, seizing almost all their children, dishonouring them if they were girls, and sometimes making eunuchs of the lads ; and thus it was that the Bushmen became greatly exasperated.

Such however was the attachment of these Bushmen to their native rocks and plains that, young as these captives were, many of them attempted to escape as soon as a favourable opportunity presented itself. They have been known to travel for many days through a wild country infested with beasts of prey, and yet at last have, after escaping many perils, succeeded in discovering the retreat of their friends. Many doubtless wandered into the far wilderness, and were never more heard of.

These unhappy little wretches, after effecting their escape sought the wildest parts of the country to travel through, in order more effectually to avoid detection. When they neared the part of the country where they believed their friends were staying, they commenced making a series of signals in the following manner : selecting a spot where they could see over a considerable extent of country, they would make a little fire on the highest point, and cover it with a small pile of damp grass, just sufficient to form one long slender column of smoke ; as this rose in the air the little wanderers watched intently to see if any answering sign could be detected. Failing to see this, they would again proceed onward, and would again and again repeat the experiment on some other favourable spots, continuing to advance in the intervals until at last they saw another slender column of smoke rising in answer to their own ; then they would speed onward in the direction where the answering signal was given.

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Should the Bushmen prove to be strangers, to show that their meeting was a friendly one all those who were armed, and there were few who were not, would during the interview lay their bows and arrows upon the ground. Thus the fugitives proceeded until they were fortunate enough to encounter some of their countrymen who knew their tribe and the position of their country, when they obtained the necessary information which enabled them to direct their footsteps, with greater certainty, in the direction of their home.

A sign of peace or a flag of truce among the Bushmen of the Karoo was displayed by exhibiting a jackal's tail fastened to the end of a stick, which was held aloft in the air and waved repeatedly ; and then, as they approached nearer, their bows and arrows were laid aside in the usual manner.N

Notes: Evidence of David Swanepoel, an old farmer of considerable intelligence, one of those who in the early days used to cross the Orange river for the purpose of hunting, when the entire country was still in the undisturbed possession of the Bushmen.

Fugitive families were, after the dispersion of the tribes, met with all over the country. Campbell in his travels in 1812-13 encountered one of these, consisting of a Bushman, his wife, a younger brother, two daughters, eleven and twelve years of age, and a child of about eighteen months, which the mother still continued to suckle. They were on their way for a supply of water. The man had a bow and quiver full of poisoned arrows. The mother had a stroke of dark blue, like tattooing, from the upper part of her brow to the nose, about half an inch broad, and two similar strokes on her temples.

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The man had several cuts on his arms and smaller ones on his temples, and so had the children, which they said was done to cure sickness. The dark colour of these cuts was produced by rubbing ground charcoal into the wounds when they were green. They had part of the entrails of a zebra filled with water, from which they frequently drank, and then filled five ostrich eggshells with water to carry home. The paunch of the 'gnu or wildebeest was frequently used as a water-bottle among the Bushman tribes. The open end or mouth of this was fastened with wildebeest-hair ; when they wished to pour out the water this was loosened sufficiently to allow the required quantity to escape, without being entirely unfastened. A tortoise shell was used as a drinking cup, or the orifice of the watersack itself was introduced into the mouth of the drinker.

Their most convenient water-bottles, however, were undoubtedly the shells of the ostrich egg. A kind of neck was made to them with the black wax employed by the bees to stop the crevices in their hives, and the mouth was closed with a plug. The women could carry a considerable number of these at a time, in a rude kind of net slung across their shoulders ; and the shell bottles, when filled, were packed away in a cool place ready for use.

Some of the Sculptor tribes used to ornament the surface of these shells in a most elaborate manner, covering them over with etchings of various animals, and sometimes even with hunting and other scenes. The delineations stood out boldly from the white ground, from the engraved lines having been blackened with charcoal or some other pigment. Gemsboks, giraffes, gnus, zebras, elands, and various kinds of antelopes, lions, and serpents, men and women, were in many instances engraved upon them with admirable skill.

Unfortunately from the fragile materials of the water-bottles, very few of these works of native talent are now to be met with. Their pots of earthenware were also sometimes ornamented with patterns raised upon the surface when the clay was being fashioned ; but these are now only found in detached fragments, as it appears to have been the universal practice of their enemies, when they took possession of one of their caves, to destroy everything which could remind them of its former owners.

The Bushmen have been frequently charged with gross inhumanity towards their children. We have already seen that it was a virtue among the Bushmen to love one's own father, and that mothers were known to deprive themselves of food that they might give it to their children. We are therefore led to imagine that these instances of cruelty were the exception rather than the general rule. The women seldom had large families. They carried their children in a different manner from that adopted by the Basutu, or Kafar race, among whom they are bound to their mother's backs in the fold of a kaross, while the Bushwomen carry their little ones on the left side, in a lying posture, the child's feet being towards its parent's back, and its head towards her chest, supported in the skin of a springbok.n

Notes: The peculiar way of carrying their children astride on the left hip employed by many of the South African Dutch peasantry has probably been derived from the Bush and Hottentot nurses that they employed in the early days.

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Moffat, who from his long contact with other races, seems sometimes to write somewhat severely about Bushmen, states that these people " take no great care of their children, and never correct them except in a fit of rage, when they almost kill them by severe usage. In a quarrel between father and mother, the defeated party wreaks his or her vengeance on the child of the conqueror, which in general loses its life.

Tame Hottentots seldom destroy their children except in a fit of passion ; but the Bushmen will kill their children without remorse on various occasions, as when they are ill-shaped, when they are in want of food, when the father of a child has forsaken its mother, or when obliged to flee from the farmers or others, in which case they will strangle them, smother them, cast them away in the desert or bury them alive rather than they should fall into the hands of their hated enemies.

There are instances of parents throwing their tender offspring to the hungry lion, who stood roaring before their cavern, refusing to depart till some peace-offering was made to him. In general the children cease to be the objects of a mother's care as soon as they are able to crawl about in the field."

Terrible as this list of charges appears to be, and to which another has been added, viz. that of burying the living infant with the body of its mother, who may have died whilst it was still in its infancy, from the hopelessness of attempting to rear it upon their primitive fare without the aid of maternal care, they were evidently aggravated by the cruelty and wrong which was heaped upon them by those who looked upon themselves as members of a superior race, who so relentlessly seized the last acre of their territory and destroyed their only means of subsistence, until all the horrors of famine dogged the steps of this ill-fated race, and many perished from hunger.

Still in their direst extremity no instance has been recorded that the Bushmen resorted to cannibalism to prolong their lives, in a similar manner to the Bachoana, Basutu, and some of the Kaffir tribes, who threw away their children by scores in their flight from their enemies, and beyond this, as soon as they had found an asylum among the mountains, had recourse to the horrid practice of feeding upon human flesh, devouring not only their children but their wives also, as well as every one else who had the misfortune to fall into their hands.

In addition to what has already been said with regard to their ornaments, it may be added that the men were the great manufacturers of beads. Their most valued ornament was that which passing through the nostril was looped up at the back of the head. As a rule in the earlier days they did not pierce the ears, and it was only after they obtained small copper rings from other tribes that the men did so.

They calculated time by wet and dry seasons and by moons, and the period of the day by the course of the sun. After a time, as they became accustomed to the use of horses, they became expert and fearless horsemen. This was shown in a striking manner in their mode of hunting the quagga, being light-weights they would dash into a herd of quaggas, and when in full career amid the maddened throng single out such victims as they marked for death.

Much has been said by many writers about the evil effects brought upon the native races since their contact with white men, by the introduction of tobacco and ardent spirits ; but, strange as it may appear, all the tribes now found in South Africa were smoking and drinking races ages before they knew of the existence of Europeans.

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The Bushmen were almost passionately fond of smoking. Their pipes were made either of wood, reed, stone, or a bone of an antelope. They were generally made in the shape of a tube rather wider at the one end than the other. Joints of the mountain bamboo were also used, as well as bowls of baked clay.

Some of them were of rather elaborate construction, and answered the purpose of a rude or rather a primitive hookah ; they were made of a large horn of an eland, a hole was made in this about one-third from the pointed end, into which was inserted a tube about nine inches in length, on the top of which was fitted an elongated clay bowl, from six to eight inches in length, either made of baked clay or cut out of a soft stone. One of the latter, which the writer saw in the hands of a Basutu who had obtained it from an old Bushman cave, was very beautifully and elaborately carved with a pattern in relief.

When these pipes were used, a certain quantity of water was put into the horn, the mouth was applied to the large orifice of the horn, and the smoke, after being drawn through the water, was inhaled quickly three or four times into the lungs, from which it was again thrown off in a violent fit of coughing, the tears at the same time rolling down from the eyes ; this was considered the height of ecstasy to the smoker. This process continued for a little time, when the fumes of the dacha produced a kind of intoxication or delirium, and the devotee commenced to recite or sing with great rapidity and vehemence the praises of himself or his chief during the intervals of smoking and coughing. The Zulus and some of the other tribes use a similar hookah, substituting, however, the horn of an ox or a calabash for the more primitive eland's horn used by the Bushmen.

As it is evident that the hunters were addicted to smoking, and used these pipes generations before they came in contact with the stronger races, it becomes a question whether the latter did not copy the idea from the older inhabitants. "The plant used for smoking was a species of wild hemp, called dacha, which was generally carried in a small skin-bag. Pieces of a narcotic root were also strung like a necklace and worn round the neck ; these were lit at the fire and brought to the nose, so that they snuffed the smoke into their nostrils.

The Kanna-bosch was also dried and powdered, and used both for chewing and smoking. When mixed with dacha it was very intoxicating.

The great happiness of the Bushman was however in his honey harvest, when the combs of the wild bees' nests were dropping with honey. It was then that he brewed his primitive mead, with which a certain root was mixed which rendered the beverage more intoxicating. This root however was kept a profound secret, except to a few chosen members of the ruling family. It was at such seasons that he could pour out the libations in which he delighted, and it was then, before the intrusion of his enemies, that he could eat, drink, and be merry.

But when his enemies came upon him, all this was changed in the evil days which followed ; and because he was the possessor of the land, he was accused of every crime, and as every opportunity was sought by the usurpers to rid themselves of his inconvenient presence, few of his race escaped a tragical end.

Having thus made some inquiry into the character and habits of the Bushmen of South Africa, we shall now take into consideration their means of subsistence. There seems very little reason to doubt that before mankind arrived at the higher grade of a hunter race, before they were able to construct weapons sufficiently effective to secure a supply of animal food for them- selves, the primitive savage must have been compelled to live upon such food as he could procure with his hands alone, with the assistance of such improvised missiles as whatever sticks or stones chance threw into his way.

In such a state he must have existed for an immense number of ages before such an advance was made as to arrive at the perfection of a sling or a bow, during which period he must have subsisted upon what in South Africa has been termed veld host, and which consists of such edible roots, bulbs, and tubers, such plants or wild fruits, insects, and small animals, birds, or reptiles, as can be secured without the aid of any artificial weapon, beyond those afforded by Nature herself.

Such then was the condition of life from which the remote ancestors of the Bushmen emerged when they entered into the rank of true huntsmen armed with, what to them must have been a wonderful invention, a bow and arrow. But in becoming hunters (a change which must have come over their race by slow degrees) they still retained their original mode of living, and the veld-kost remained, especially in times of scarcity, one of their mainstays to support existence.

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This kind of food may, as we have seen, be divided into two kinds, vegetable and animal. We will therefore enumerate, in the first place, such productions of the former classN as are known to have been utilised by them as articles of food, after which we shall notice those which they obtained from the animal kingdom.

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Notes: The writer had hoped, during the time he was engaged upon the geological survey of the Orange Free State, to have obtained a correct and exhaustive list of such things as had been used by the early Free State Bushmen, but although he made strenuous efforts to do so he failed— as owing to some unaccountable reason the Boers who had old Bushmen living on their farms used every means of persuasion to prevent them accompanying him, and the Bushmen across the border declared they dared not cross it on account of their fear of the Boers.

Hunger, writes Moffat, compelled them to feed upon everything edible. Ixias, wild garlic, mesembryanthemums, the core of aloes, the gum of acacias, and several other plants and berries, some of which are extremely unwholesome, constituted their fruits of the field ; while almost every kind of living creature was eagerly devoured, lizards, locusts, and grasshoppers, the poisonous as well as innoxious serpents not excepted, the head of the former being carefully cut off, and then all roasted and eaten together.

The Bushmen of the more wooded portions of the sea-coast were able to obtain a number of additions to their vegetable supplies, which their brethren of the interior could not procure. The bulbs of many Ixias and other plants of the same tribe constituted with ants and locusts the chief food of the Bushmen and Koranas, when they could not procure game or milk.

The inside also of the enormous roots of the Testudinaria elephantipes, or elephant's foot, and the soft pithy interior of the stems of the Zamid, the latter being known to the colonists as Hottentot-bread, were extracted, reduced to a pulp, and after being baked in some primitive fashion, served the purpose of a kind of coarse bread or cake. The flowering tops of the Aponogeton distachys, a pretty white-flowered floating plant frequent in pools in many parts of the colony, and sometimes used even by the settlers as a pickle, and asparagus, were cooked by them.n

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Notes: The Uyntje, called Monakaladi in Sesutu, is one of their principal means of subsistence ; it is abundant in the Free State, the Interior, and in Basutoland, and in fact this little bulb is found in the whole of South Africa. They eat it any way, either raw, roasted under the ashes, or ground, or rather it is crushed on a stone; when crushed it is dried, in which state it will keep a long time."

" The Sekeng-keng in Sesutu is a fat plant that grows on the hills and in very dry places, they also eat it raw. The black tribes use this plant also to improve their snuff, by mixing a little of its ashes with the snuff." — Notes by C. S. Orpen, Memoir on Bushmen, by Miss L. E. Lemue.

The young shoots of several shrubs were also used as articles of food. One of these was said to possess special nourishing properties, viz. the Methyscophyllum glaucum (Mac-Owan), growing on the banks and in the ravines of the Kei. These shoots when chewed have a slightly bitter, yet pleasant flavour, combined with a strong sweet taste of licorice. It is said to contain such life-sustaining powers that during its season the Bushmen were not only able to subsist for a considerable time upon its nourishment alone, but, as they termed it, they became " strong and fat " upon the invigorating diet.

The Bushmen of the North, again, were able to procure supplies from the vegetable kingdom which were denied to those living on the great central plains. To the travellers Chapman and Baines we are indebted for whatever description of them we possess. The first noticed is a tree with heart-shaped leaves called Toa by the Bushmen, Onganga by the Ovambo, and Mapura by the Bachoana. Its wood is used principally by the natives for making wooden vessels, troughs, etc., and combines softness with closeness of grain and durability.

All the natives make a strong intoxicating drink out of its fruit, which is very like a lime in appearance, of a pleasant acid taste, thick rind like the lime, and with a large nut inside. The elephants are very fond of it. The trunk of the tree is generally several feet thick and straight for about twenty or thirty feet, when it branches out into a beautiful crown.

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The Baobab, Adansonia digitata, is another tree connected with the Bushmen of the interior. Its Bushman name is 'Bo, it is called Moana by the Bachoana and Makololo tribes, and Boana or Boyana by those of the Makalaka and Batonga. Its fruit hangs attached to a strong stem, and has a woody gourd-like capsule, sometimes from ten to twelve, but generally about six inches in length, and from three to four thick. In this capsule numerous kidney-shaped seeds are imbedded between fibrous divisions in a white pulpy acid substance, somewhat resembling cream of tartar in taste.

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The Bushmen convert the fibrous bark into a kind of matting, which is sometimes used in lieu of a blanket or a kaross. They look as if made of a material like coir. Bags, ropes, etc., are also made of it, but the wood, being soft and spongy, is useless, excepting as tinder when in a state of decay.

In the decayed hollows of the uppermost branches bees build their nests in fancied security from the ravages of the Bushmen, who nevertheless scale its castle-like walls by means of two rows of pegs driven deep into the bark to serve as a ladder.N From the pulp of the fruit a very pleasant and wholesome drink may be made with boiling water, in cases of fever, especially with the addition of a little honey or sugar.

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The Bushmen made a kind of porridge by boiling it, which was however very acid. The fruit ripens when the leaves have fallen, generally in March and April. The difficulty of throwing them down with sticks and stones ensures a pretty constant supply throughout the winter season. Chapman found in some of these trees large excavations made by the Bushmen, in which ten or twelve men could sleep, with a fire in their midst. In others large caverns were discovered, the resort of numerous owls and bats.

Notes: The writer has seen places where the Bushmen, by a similar method, have climbed the face of a dizzy precipice where even a baboon could not have obtained a footing, to secure the much coveted honey of a bees' nest. The pegs were still in the face of the precipice.

Another fruit of great value to the Bushmen of this part of Africa was a species of Anona, which these people called Bododo. It was found by Chapman, in 1854, in the Kalahari, near the Chobe It is a perennial, thriving in moist sandy places, such as old river-bedsN and hollows. It is from fifteen to eighteen inches high, and grows in beds and clusters. The leaves are oblong, alternate, and one inch apart, their upper sides smooth and glossy, and their lower strongly reticulated. The fruit is divided into sections, each of which encloses a brown seed, in shape like that of the castor-oil plant, but larger. The fruit hangs downward by a short stem, under the leaves. It emits a very sweet odour when ripe, by which it may be easily traced in the field.

Mr. Chapman states that it was the most luscious fruit he ever tasted, and that when ripe it is of a pine-apple colour. In its green state it is used as a vegetable. In favourable seasons the Bushmen gathered large quantities, and became fat upon it, but it is almost too luscious for a white palate. Some seasons, however, it does not bear at all.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari frequently obtained for two or three months together their water supply from the wild water-melon (Cucumis caffer) found so plentifully in the desert at certain seasons. Making a hole in one side of the melon, they pound up its contents, the rind forming a natural mortar, and then drink the water thus obtained.

Notes: The old dry river beds found in the Kalahari region are called Dums by the Bushmen, Omaramba by the Damaras, and Malopo by the Bachoana.

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The Bushmen of the 'Gariep, or Great river, make use of a species of Stipelia, which they call 'Guaba. The writer found this growing on the rocky ridges of the great southern bend of this river. It is eaten both by the Bushmen and the Dutch hunters to assuage their thirst. It has a sweetish taste, somewhat approaching licorice, mingled with a permanent bitter which clings to the palate for a long time after it has been eaten. The Bushmen assert that it acts as a tonic, both strengthening them and increasing their powers of endurance.

Besides these things, some of the Bushman tribes collected considerable quantities of grass-seeds, which were pounded, boiled, and eaten like grain. It would appear that the practice of collecting these seeds for winter store was almost universal before the peace of the country was destroyed by the irruption of the stronger races into it.

Several of their mortars, hollowed out of the solid rock, and which are worked out in perfect shape and smoothed and finished inside with a care which is surprising when we know that the only chisel at their disposal was a chipped and sharpened piece of lydite, are still found near several of the old caves in the Free State, and which were used in the preparation of this kind of food. It was doubtless the use of grass-seeds as an article of food which induced some of the earlier races of men to attempt its growth to increase the quantity of their winter food, a practice which formed the germ whence by slow degrees and step by step the knowledge of cultivating the soil was gained, and from which the science of agriculture ultimately sprang.

The most abundant supplies of insect food were derived from the innumerable ant-hills found in the country, and in the early days the almost periodical visits of vast swarms of locusts. The arrival of the latter was hailed by the Bushmen as a glorious time of harvest, as they were esteemed excellent and nourishing food. Immense numbers of them were caught, deprived of their legs and wings, dried in the fire, and then either ground with a maalklip, that is a flat stone, or one which has been slightly hollowed in the centre, upon which the dried locusts were reduced to powder by means of a smaller round one worked with both hands, or pounded in one of the mortars which have been described as hollowed out of the solid rock and used in the preparation of grass-seeds.

The finest specimen of one of these mortars which the writer met with, he discovered hollowed out of a large boulder in front of a cave in the Koesberg. It was six inches in diameter and eight in depth, of excellent shape, and perfectly smooth inside. The labour required to have made this with the rude stone implements they possessed must have been immense. Unfortunately the boulder was too large to be removed, and doubtless remains in the same position until the present day.

The locust-powderN was stored in a dry place, in skin sacks, and kept for future use, when it was made into a kind of porridge, and also, when mixed with honey, into a sort of cake, which was said by those who have tasted it to have been far from unpalatable. The nutritious properties of this food were proved by the fact that during the locust season the Bushmen increased in flesh, and became rotund and well-conditioned.

Notes: The method of baking the locusts was by hollowing out and heating beforehand a deserted anthill. They were poured into this primitive oven through a hole at the top, and when sufficiently dried, which was in a short time, were raked out through another at the bottom. — Memoir of Miss L. E. Lemvie, C. S. Orpen's Notes.

The Bushman-rice, as it was termed by the Dutch, or chrysalides of white ants obtained from the ants' nests, was merely gathered in such quantities as sufficed for daily use. This Bushman rice was called 'Kasu by the Bushmen themselves. To obtain a supply, the nest was opened with a digging stick, called 'Kibi. The "eggs" were then taken out and placed upon a small grass mat, made expressly for the purpose, and which was used as a sieve. The " eggs " were then properly sorted, and placed in a small grass basket or skin bag, and the process was continued until a sufficient quantity was obtained. They were then taken to the cave or camp, when they were placed on the fire, on a flat stone with a little fat, and roasted until they were brown, when they were considered fit for use.

Among the reptiles most esteemed as food were the great frog and the iguana, both of which are said by epicures to possess a most delicate and chicken-like flavour. The enormous frog (Pycicephalus adspersus) (Dr. Smith), called the brul-pad, or bellowing toad, from the noise it makes resembling the bellow of a bull, by the Dutch, and matlameto by the Bakuena, is supposed by the natives to fall from the thunder-clouds, on account of their sudden appearance during rain, as frequently when the rain is falling a sudden chorus is raised on all sides, which seems to strengthen the belief.

The Bushmen, however, found out that in times of drought it makes a hole at the root of certain bushes. And as it seldom quits its hiding-place, a large variety of spider takes advantage of the hole, and makes its web across the orifice, and thus it is discovered by them.

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Savage as they were deemed to be, they had several modes of cooking, viz :— boiling, roasting or broiling, and baking. The last, as we have seen, was sometimes accomplished by the help of a deserted ant-heap. Meat was sometimes prepared in this manner ; but the climax of Bushman cookery was reached in the mode they adopted in preparing the foot of the elephant or hippopotamus, a delicacy supposed to be the portion of their great chiefs. After an elephant or hippopotamus had been killed or captured, the tribe gave itself up to feasting and festivity.

A hole was dug in the ground, in which a large fire was made. When it was thoroughly heated, and the coals and ashes were raked out, the great foot of the animal was placed in the centre, and it was then covered in with the ashes which had been abstracted. In this position it was allowed to remain until the following morning, when, according to the testimony of old hunters, these wild men produced a dish fit for an emperor !

They obtained fire by using fire-sticks. The Bushmen employed several kinds of wood in making them ; one was a small thorny bush abundant in some parts of South Africa, and called Mosukutsoane by the Basutu, another that of the wild fig, and a third that sometimes called Melkbosch by the Dutch, a species of Asclepias, the " wild cotton " of the Settlers.

Two small pieces of one or other of these woods were taken ; the one was round, and pointed at one end, the other had been flattened, with a small rounded hollow in the centre of it, into which the pointed end of the former was introduced as in a loose socket, which by being rubbed briskly between the palms of the hands was made to revolve rapidly. In a few seconds, under their skilful manipulation, fire would make its appearance. A small groove was cut from the socket in the lower piece to allow the ignited particles to escape.

Mr. Octavius Bowker, who has frequently in his hunting expeditions been accompanied by some of these wild huntsmen, has assured the writer that he has been perfectly astonished at the readiness and rapidity with which he has seen them obtain fire to cook any game that may have fallen in the chase.

On one special occasion, during a halt, one of his Bushmen attendants undertook to broil some steaks for him from an eland that had been shot. His volunteer cook first collected a quantity of dry wildebeest dung, and with a sharp stick dug up a number of grass roots ; these he placed in a small circle, putting the meat in the centre. He produced his fire-sticks, and with a few rapid whirls obtained the necessary fire to set the whole in a blaze, and in a short time produced as savoury a repast as any genuine hunter could desire ; and this, he assured his master, was the method of cooking game adopted by his countrymen.


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WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE BUSHMEN


Having thus obtained a slight insight into their means of subsistence, we will now proceed to make some inquiry with regard to their Weapons and Poisons.

In entering upon this portion of our subject we find ourselves confronted with the important and interesting fact that the Bushmen were not only cave-dwellers, but also the manufacturers of the stone implements which are found scattered all over the surface of the country ; and, moreover, it is equally certain that implements of this kind were still manufactured and used by some of their more isolated clans until within as recent a period as the last fifteen or twenty years. This circumstance was so well known that when any of these implements have been presented to old Koranas or Bachoana, with an inquiry as to what they were intended for, they have invariably answered, “They are Bushman knives !”

Some have questioned the authenticity of these stone relics of South Africa, asserting somewhat emphatically that the whole of them were merely natural exfoliations from the parent rock. It is quite possible that exfoliations of this kind might have first taught primitive man the benefit to be derived from a sharp-edged tool, and that he subsequently learnt the method of striking them off himself when no others were to be found, and, finally, of improving the efficiency of their edges by chipping and grinding them, varying their shapes according to the uses for which they were intended.

The proofs, however, of their having been shaped by human hands are too overwhelming to be gainsaid. The writer has found them in all parts of South Africa which he has visited. Numerous chipping places are to be found where the flakes are scattered round, and the cores lying amongst them. He has seen these places near the banks of rivers, on the tops of kopjes, whence an extensive view of the country could be obtained, and especially near their caves, where among the refuse belonging to the larger ones immense numbers are still frequently to be found.

The favourite rock for making them was Lydite, although any other hard rock was frequently employed. These materials must in most cases have been brought from long distances, as no similar rocks could be found for many miles. Arrow-tips and small drills were generally formed of flint, agate, or chalcedony, which in many instances could only have been obtained from distant tribes.

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As an illustration of this, the following were the results of the examination of a small Bushman cave in the kloof near the native location at Smithfield, which had evidently been only an occasional residence of an insignificant family or clan. The rocks of the surrounding country are composed exclusively of those of what are termed the Karoo or Lacustrine formation, with igneous dykes protruding through them, while the micaceous-sandstone, schistose and jaspideous rocks here spoken of are only to be found among the older formations which formed its ancient coast-line or boundary, the nearest known point of which must be at least some one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles from Smithfield. The agates, chalcedony, etc., could have been obtained from the Vaal, the Orange, or Caledon rivers.

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The examination of this cave was made through the energetic aid of Mr. Charles Sirr Orpen, who pointed it out to the writer and accompanied him to it, taking with him a man and the necessary implements for a vigorous search. The floor of the cave was then gradually cleared out, and the soil and refuse ashes thus obtained carefully sifted and sorted, with the following interesting results. They were found to comprise from the animal kingdom fragments of bone, pieces of ostrich eggshells, and fresh-water shells ; from the mineral numerous stone implements and chips, together with some relics of native manufacture. They were as follows —

Animal remains, among numerous small fragments of bone :—
Leg bones, broken fragments, various antelopes ... 5
Small scapula, animal unknown ... 1
„ clavicle ,, „ .... ... 1
Fragments of various small skulls, among which two under-maxillary bones of small rodents .... 6
Teeth, antelope 4
“ wild-boar 2
i rib, antelope 1
Fragments of Ostrich Shell : —
Fragments comparatively recent 12
„ ancient, slightly damaged I2
,, ,, almost fossilized 5
— 29
Some of these had evidently been broken up with the intention of manufacturing beads.
Fresh-water Shells : —
Fragments probably used as scrapers — 4
Total of animal remains 53
Stone Implements, etc. : —
Knives and drills (Lydite) 8
Scrapers ,, 12
„ (Micaceous sandstone) 4
,, (Schistose-rock) 1
Chipped agates, drills and scrapers 11
Quartz and chalcedony — chipped fragments .... 13
Fragments — jaspideous-rock 5
Total of implements — 54
Native manufactures, pottery, etc. : —
Plain pottery, fragments 4
Pottery, showing bordering edge, one with worked pattern upon it 2
— 6
Bone shaft of arrow, fragment made of ostrich leg bone . 1
Stem of clay-pipe, fragment 1
Found in upper surface : —
Fragment of iron shaft of assagai much corroded . . 1
— 3 9
This was the only indication of metal discovered.
One small fragment of fossil reptilian-bone, derived from karoo-formation 1
Total of contents of cave 117

The interesting results afforded by the above examination of such a small cave clearly indicate the important discoveries which might be made could time and leisure be obtained to sift the accumulations on the floors of the greater caves which have been inhabited for many generations by some of the large tribes. Besides the writer's own personal and somewhat extended experience, the following extracts will tend to show the wide field which still remains unexplored : " The presence of many chips of implements, and a coarse kind of pottery, in some of the Stormberg caves," says a writer in the Cape Monthly Magazine, " leads us to hope that explorers may yet bring to light as startling facts from discoveries to be made there as have been elicited from the thorough search in the haunts of the so-called cave-men in England and elsewhere."

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The prevalence of stone weapons in Basutoland and in the neighbourhood of Aliwal North, and also in the caves of the Stormberg range, is referred to in a very interesting communication inserted below from Mr. Alfred Brown, of Aliwal North. Mr. St. Vincent Cripps also discovered during his visit to Basuto- land a collection of arrow-heads and flakes near Stephenson's Drift, Orange River, in the Native Reserve. The implements were lying on the undisturbed surface, along the terraced ridges of the river-bank.

With regard to the ancient mounds and stone implements occurring in the vicinity of Aliwal North, and more especially some parts of Basutoland recently annexed to the Orange Free State, Mr. Alfred Brown writes : " I presume that a short noteN on these localities will not be unacceptable to the readers of your useful publication, as general conclusions are often affected by a more extended range of observations. About ten miles south of Koesberg, lately Poshuli's country, is an extensive plain, intersected by a valley nearly five miles in length and five hundred yards in width, which is the site of a very interesting series of ancient mounds or refuse heaps.

"The rocks forming the sides of the valley consist of coarse gritty and quartzose sandstone. Underneath the terrace band of sandstone, which, in general, considerably overhangs the valley, and affords secure shelter from the weather, are numerous caves, whose floors are covered with the refuse deposits and mounds, varying from two to eight feet in thickness.

"The mounds are now overgrown with a coarse rough grass, which binds them so firmly together that the rains and rush of water over the ledge of rocks have scarcely any effect upon them. Their uppermost surfaces are strewn with numerous fragments of stone implements, made of materials obtained from rocks which do not exist within many miles of the spot. They are composed of a mass of ashes, charred wood, fragments of implements, and numerous comminuted bones ; many of the bones have not only lost a large percentage of their animal matter, but sometimes occur in a subfossil condition."

Notes: Article in Cape Monthly Magazine.

Having thus shown some of the evidence which exists upon the connexion between the Bushmen and the stone implements found in the country, the following incident will tend to prove that the knowledge of their manufacture and use still exists among some of the Bushmen of the present day. When Mr. F. H. S. Orpen, the Surveyor-General of Griqualand West, was on one of his tours of inspection in the western portion of the province, accompanied by his son, the latter whilst out shooting with a Bushman after-rider, happened to kill a springbok in the middle of a large plain.

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When they wished to lighten the buck by disembowelling it and depriving it of its head, it was discovered that neither had a knife in his possession. In this dilemma the Bushman said that it was all right, and looking round selected a couple of stones. Giving a smart blow with one piece above one of the angles of the other, he immediately struck off a long flake found to possess a sharp cutting edge; with this he set to work, and in a short time opened the buck, dressed it properly, cut the sinews of the legs, and brought it into a state fit to place behind the saddle. He then threw away the stone implement which had proved so useful.

This manufacture of a stone flake, merely for temporary use, seems to explain the reason why so many of this kind are found thickly strewn over different portions of the old game country.

The Bushmen, however, manufactured a large number of other implements intended for permanent use, which were formed upon certain patterns, and fashioned with considerable care. These comprised spear-heads (?), rubbers, wood and bone-scrapers, hammers, arrow points, drills, etc. One of their most valued implements was " the poison-stone," made of a smooth flat oval pebble about two and a half inches long, with a deep groove along the centre. This was kept for the purpose of working the poison upon the heads of their arrows, without the necessity of touching it with the fingers. This stone was so highly prized by them that it is said they would never part with it, except with their life.

A highly valued implement was a cylinder of sandstone about two and a half inches in diameter and three in length, with about five rather deep longitudinal grooves on its sides. These were intended for forming the round bone shafts of their arrows, and also for rounding the edges of their ostrich eggshell beads. The stone bowls for pipes we have already mentioned.

Still another valued and important implement was the large round perforated stone used to give weight and impetus to the 'Kibi or digging stick, which was said also to have been occasionally used as an offensive weapon or a club. The stone itself was called ‘T-koe or ‘Tikoe,N signifying " the strong hand," because they were enabled to dig into hard surfaces and make excavations which it would have been impossible for them to have accomplished without its assistance. It was therefore their veritable strong hand, and thus it was that they achieved labours in excavating such numerous pitfalls in some parts of the country that intelligent travellers have been astonished at these unquestionable proofs which they have given of their untiring industry.

The rock selected for making these stones was either a fine crystalline igneous one, or a tough close-grained sandstone. They were first, with infinite labour, rounded into the required shape, either a spherical or oblong ball, which varied from three to six, eight, or nine inches in the diameter of their longest axis. The smaller were generally of the former, the larger of the latter shape. The process of making a hole through the centre, or in those of an oblong or egg-shape through the longest axis, must have been a work of much time and patience, and was performed with a sharp-pointed piece of black stone which they called T'wing (Lydite).

At first a slight indentation was made at each end of the stone, in which a few drops of water were alternately placed and allowed to stand all night, and the next morning a little more was worked out, when a little more water was placed in the hollow. This process was repeated day after day, and thus by slow degrees a large hole was at last worked through the hard stone, which was then smoothed, and was fit for use. A strong stick of hard wood, rather more than two feet long, was then procured, which was sharpened at one end, the other pushed through the hole in the stone until it protruded about six inches, when it was firmly wedged in its place. This formed the Bushman's celebrated 'Kibi, or digging stick, upon which he had solely to depend in times of scarcity for a means of subsistence. Its origin, therefore, in all probability, is one of remote antiquity.

Notes: 1 With regard to this stone, the 'Tikoe, Miss L. E. Lemue writes that it was considered " such a valuable article with the Bushmen, that it was never left behind or thrown away." Notes of Charles S. Orpen. This, therefore, would seem to indicate that when these implements are found scattered over the country, their unfortunate owners must either have been suddenly slain, or they must have been accidentally lost in their panic and flight from their enemies.

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The flat stones used for roasting the ants' "eggs" were slightly hollowed in the middle, which was formed by chipping out the hollow with another hard stone. Small tortoise-shells were sometimes used as drinking-cups, and the large ones as dishes for their different kinds of porridge, etc.

The Bushmen of the Stormberg, the Orange ('Nu-‘Gariep), and Caledon rivers used very short bows, while the tribes north of the Vaal ('Gij 'Gariep) and to the westward used bows of a much longer kind. Any one unaccustomed to the use of weapons of the former description was unable to draw them to their full strength. This was done by holding the bow itself firmly in the left hand, and placing three fingers of the right upon the string, steadying the end of the arrow between the thumb and first finger, then drawing the arrow up to the head.

This could not be done with one straight pull, but with three jerky movements ; the first drew the string out of line, the second about half the length of the arrow, and the third up to its head, when the missile was immediately freed for flight. This extension gave great impetus to the poisoned shaft, and sent it not only to a considerable distance, but with sufficient force to pierce the thickest hide. A bow, however, thus drawn, when incautiously managed by a novice, was very apt to strip the .flesh from the tips of the fingers of the uninitiated one who ventured to try the experiment.

The Bushmen used two kinds of arrows, one of which had a very sharp bone point or pile. In making these, or the heads of their fishing harpoons, awls, and other similar bone implements, the bone of the ostrich leg was always preferred to any other, on account of its superior hardness and toughness. These piles were fitted carefully into the end of the reed, which was neatly bound round and strengthened with a narrow band of sinew. The arrows were from fifteen to eighteen inches in length, of which two-thirds were composed of the reed, the other of the pointed bone shaft ; in some cases they were tipped with sharp horn points.

The second kind was exactly like the first, with the exception of the head, which originally was made of a triangular chipped piece of flint, agate, chalcedony, etc, fitted into the bone, which instead of having a sharp point was cut off square, into which a groove or notch was cut rather more than the eighth of an inch in depth, into which the triangular head was fitted, and held in its place either with a little tough well-tempered clay or the milky sap of a plant called by the Basutu Setloko.

About an inch and a half from the head a small piece of quill was so fixed as to act as a barb, and was neatly fastened in its place with a binding of sinew. All this portion of the head was carefully covered with the poison, which had some- thing of the consistency of black wax, and which by firmly adhering to the sinew binding tended also to keep the head in its place. An arrow of this kind, having struck an animal and penetrated beyond the quill barb, would have no chance of falling out ; and even if in the efforts of the animal to escape the reed portion should become separated, the bone part of the shaft with its poisoned head remained behind, rankling in the wound with every motion which it made.

After the Bushmen came into contact with the stronger races which were acquainted with the use of metals, they adopted small triangular pieces of iron for their arrow points, instead of the more primitive materials used by their fathers ; many of the more isolated clans, however, still retained them to within a few years of the present time.

Mr. W. Coates Palgrave informed the writer that at the time of his first visit among the Bushmen of the lower portion of the 'Gariep or Great river, they used invariably small chips of chalcedony, etc., probably obtained from some of the agate gravels of the river, for making the sharp points of their poisoned arrows ; but that after travellers had passed through their country and scattered a number of old bottles about in various directions, he found when he again visited them that they were using chipped pieces of glass m preference, having found that they could give a sharper edge to the new material than to that which they had before employed.

Mr. Palgrave sent one of the stone-headed arrows to Cape Town. This interesting specimen has been described by the same writer, in the Cape Monthly, as the one previously mentioned, and as it differs slightly from those which the writer himself personally examined, we cannot do better than compare it with the details of those already given. It came from the northern borders.

"The construction of it," says its describer, " is highly interesting as a key to the method of fixing stone arrow tips in the shaft. The workmanship is wonderfully neat and effective. The shaft consists of two lengths of fine reed, between which (for strength and weight) is socketed a bone of three inches in length.

"The joints are firmly secured by tightly bound strips of the sinews of animals. Into the end of the reed shaft is inserted a small leaf-shaped arrow-head of quartz crystal, the fissure is narrow, and the arrow-head, excepting the very tip and edges, is embedded in a fine cement, apparently clay, and evidently dressed with some poisonous matter. The stone arrow-head is sharp at the edges and the point. A horn barb is spliced on about an inch from the arrow-head. There is a coating of clay along the shaft for about three inches, securing the barb, and giving weight, as well as preventing the splitting of the reed. This constitutes a formidable weapon."

"It is remarkable," he further writes, " that in my collection I have a well-shaped arrow-head, found on the Cape Flats, of the same size and material as the one fixed in this Bushman arrow."

The present writer has himself found a considerable number in the vicinity of the different Bushman caves he has visited in the Free State and elsewhere. Some of the tribes carried their arrows in a leathern bag slung over the shoulder, but by far the greater number preserved them in a quiver, sometimes of leather or bark, but whenever procurable the bark of the Koker-boom, or Quiver-tree, a species of aloe widely spread over South Africa, and called Aloe Dichotoma by Paterson. This was frequently ornamented round the top with a band of snake or iguana skin, and contained from sixty to eighty arrows.

Besides these they frequently carried a number in a fillet round their heads, for rapid use as well as to strike their enemies with terror. Some wore them sticking out like rays all around ; others again had eight or ten on each side, so arranged as to represent horns, and others fixed these arrows in such a manner that the ends alternately crossed each other until they formed a kind of ridged roof or helmet over the head of the warrior-huntsman.

They were able to shoot one of these arrows to a distance of two hundred paces, and could hit a mark, some with unerring precision, and all with a tolerable degree of certainty, from fifty to a hundred.

Besides their bows and arrows the Bushmen made use of other weapons in the chase or in war. We have already noticed that the 'Kibi occasionally served as a mace or club ; they also employed small darts, or assagais, which were thrown by the hand. Their construction differed from those belonging to the Kaffir races. They had remarkably short lance-shaped blades, and the heads, before their intercourse with the stronger races who were acquainted with the use of iron, were formed of chipped and sharpened pieces of lydite, etc.

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They were also poisoned in a similar manner to their arrows. The shafts of these weapons were about three feet long. They were never employed except at short distances, or at close quarters, and when hunting such large animals as the elephant, hippopotamus, etc.

The force with which an expert hunter could hurl one of these primitive missiles is well illustrated by an incident which Campbell recorded in his first journey into the Interior, when a Bushman showed his dexterity in using even a common stone with fatal effect. A quagga being wounded, but still attempting to escape, this Bushman threw off his skin kaross, ran towards it, and with great exertion threw a stone which sank into its forehead, on which he drew out a knife which had been given to him and stabbed it.

The Bushmen near Lake Ngami, who are great elephant-hunters, use a strong broad-bladed assagai attached to a thick shaft about five feet in length ; this is not intended for throwing, but is used as a spear simply for thrusting at close quarters, and is employed by them in their attacks upon the great pachyderm.

These blades, being made of iron, are obtained from the neighbouring tribes, the chiefs of which claim the tusks of all the animals they kill. But long before the southern Bushman tribes had the slightest knowledge of the value, or even the existence of iron, a very large kind of harpoon or spear was used by them for the purpose of hamstringing the larger game, such as the elephant or hippopotamus. The blade or head was made of a sharp stone, generally poisoned, and attached to a long strong shaft. This weapon was evidently the forerunner of the broad-bladed assagai of the Ngami Bushmen of the present day.

Upon certain occasions some of their clans used shields made of eland's hide, such as are depicted in their own paintings, especially in some of their methods of hunting the lion, when this piece of defensive armour was fastened on their backs, so that should the brute spring upon them, they threw themselves on the ground and drew themselves up under it after the manner of the tortoise, and thus afforded their companions an opportunity of rescuing them.

In addition to the foregoing, the Bushmen of the 'Nu and 'Gij 'Gariep and their tributaries, all of whose streams abounded with fish, made very ingenious harpoons to enable them to capture them. These weapons were made with long, sharp, barbed points of bone.

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This portion of the harpoon was valued so very highly by the owners that, although the shafts after use might be thrown away, the bone points were always carried with them when they migrated from one spot to another, with the same care as that which they bestowed upon the preservation of the " poison stone " and their " strong hand," the T’ikoe of their digging sticks. The shafts were made of the stems of the mountain bamboo, to which a long line made from the back sinews of an antelope was attached.

Mr. Jan Wessels has assured the writer that he has many times watched the Bushmen using these weapons, and has been astonished at the dexterity and unerring aim with which they struck and landed fish of a considerable size. The use of this weapon must necessarily have been confined to such tribes as lived along the course of the great rivers mentioned and their affluents, and possibly some of those inhabiting the sea coast. Those which were seen and examined were in the possession of Bushmen belonging to the valleys of the 'Nu or 'Gij 'Gariep.

Another bone implement much valued by the Bushmen was the awl, made out of a piece of the leg bone of an ostrich, sometimes also of ivory, although the former kind appears to have been in more general use. They were about four inches in length, the thickness of a moderately sized porcupine's quill, and tapering gradually towards both ends to a sharp point.

A Bushman generally carried two or three of these of different sizes in his velzak, which he used when required after the fashion of a modem cobbler, by first boring the hole and then introducing the thread of sinew, and although this was a slow and tedious process, it was remarkable with what neatness and regularity they were able to place the stitches into the work upon which they were engaged. This was especially seen in some of the caps they manufactured of jackal's skin, very much in the shape of a Turkish fez.

The stone scrapers were of two kinds, one employed in cleaning and rounding not only their bows, but also the handles and shafts of their kerries, darts, and harpoons, which was generally a thin and nearly flat flake of stone, with a deep semicircular notch in one side, with a sharp edge, and varying in size according to the required thickness of the shaft to be manufactured. This was used as a kind of primitive spokeshave.

The other was also a tolerably flat, but thicker stone than the last, about two and a half to three inches across the broadest part, and of a rudely circular shape, but such as could be conveniently gripped by its outer edge between the fore-finger and the thumb. It was used in the preparation of their skin mantles and bags, in scraping and clearing away any extraneous matter adhering to the skin under manipulation, which after undergoing a course of scraping, rubbing, and stretching with the hands and trampling with the feet, was at last reduced to the required degree of softness.

The skin of the springbok was the one which was preferred in the construction of these mantles. In summer one only was worn, suspended from the shoulders with the head downward, forming a kind of ornamental appendage ; when cold they wore two, one hanging on each side. Their favourite bags for hanging at their waists were made of meer-kat skins. It was in a bag of this description that they carried the lump of deadly poison which they applied to their fatal arrows.

Having thus gained some insight into the description of weapons and implements used by the primitive Bushmen, we will now attempt to make a further advance by taking into consideration the means they adopted to render these apparently rude and, to modern ideas, almost useless weapons efficient and formidable.

From all the evidence which can be obtained from Korana and other native sources, the Bushman race alone of all the South African tribes used poison to render the effects of their weapons more fatal. We shall discover, as we proceed, that the early Hottentot tribes were ignorant of its use, and did not adopt the practice until after their retreat from the Cape districts, when they came in contact with the Bushman tribes of the valley of the 'Gariep or Great river.

The same may be said with regard to the Bachoana and Basutu, whose ancestors were also armed with bows and arrows from a remote period, with the exception that their bows, as might have been expected, were much larger, and frequently more elaborately polished and strengthened with strips of sinew bound round different portions of them.

The border tribe of the Batlapin, however, was the only known one of their race who made use of poison, a mode of warfare which they adopted to enable them to compete with the Koranas and Bushmen ; but for a long time after doing so they still remained ignorant of its mode of preparation, and had to depend solely upon whatever chance supply they could obtain from one or other of these people.

With regard to the antiquity of the use of the bow among the Basutu tribes, in an ancient Bushman painting in a cave in the Wittebergen of the Orange Free State, which represents a battle scene between the Bushmen and these people, the latter are armed with long bows, exactly similar to those employed by the Bamangwato and Mashoona tribes living between the Limpopo and Zambesi of the present day.

The last-mentioned tribe manufacture the most elaborate iron barbed points for their arrows, the shafts of which are not only fledged with the greatest neatness, but the shaft itself is often etched over with zigzag patterns. Such elaborations in their structure evidently shew that they have been manufactured by experts, and are not the experimental trials of novices, while their bows, as above noticed, are much stronger, longer, and more highly finished. In speaking with some of the old natives of these tribes, the writer has been assured that none of their weapons in the older times were poisoned, and yet the bow and arrow were the weapons of their fathers.

The origin of the old hunter race poisoning their darts and arrows was doubtless occasioned from the fragile materials of which they were made, and the necessity of rendering the wounds inflicted by their bone and flint-pointed arrows more certainly fatal than it was possible for them to be in the primitive state of their manufacture.

Witnessing the fatal effects of the bite of many of the venomous snakes which infested the country would, in all probability, be the first thing which suggested to the dawning inventive faculties of the human mind the potency of such an application to their arrows, and which would also at the same time point to the source whence the means could be procured of rendering their weapons equally dangerous ; and experience would ultimately teach them that different poisons, more or less virulent, were required to secure the different kinds of game which they hunted.

Those of the stronger races using more powerful and formidable weapons of the same class would not have to resort to the same expedient, but would naturally rely upon the greater penetrative powers of their well-fledged and cruelly double barbed arrows for equally fatal results.

That such races may have, at a remote period, fashioned their weapons after the model of still more primitive hunters need not be questioned, as well as that of using at one time or the other poisoned points. At any rate, from all the evidence the writer has been able to gather upon the subject, the more advanced Basutu tribes for a lengthened period used bows with unpoisoned arrows, while the Bushmen, on the other hand, employed shafts whose fatal potency was attributable to the virulent poisons with which they were armed.

The Bushmen of the same locality used different kinds of poison on different occasions, according to the description of game they were hunting. Poisons sufficiently strong to destroy the springbok and smaller kind of antelopes were not equally successful with the wildebeest and the quagga ; the lion also required poison of considerable strength, while the buffalo and the ostrich required the most potent of all.

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Different tribes .used different ingredients and modes of preparation, even with the poisons deemed the most virulent ; thus, according to Livingstone, the Bushmen of the North, living at Rapesli and Kama-Kama (Pools of Pools, or Pools of Water) used for their strongest poison the entrails of a caterpillar called 'N'gwa, half an inch long.

By a lucky accident Mr. Chapman discovered the antidote for this poison. The Bushmen were most unwilling to give any information upon the subject, denying the existence of an antidote at all. From the researches of the writer, he is convinced that there were certain secrets among many of the tribes which were not known to every member of them, but which were kept as heirlooms in a certain branch or family, and which gave them a superiority over the rest, thus laying the first foundations of " caste."

This seems to have been especially the case, not only in the manipulation and preparation of poisons, and the antidotes suited thereto, but even in a more marked manner among those tribes that produced the great artists of their race, the proper mixture and employment of colours was only known to the few, and not to the many. This exclusive knowledge naturally gave rise to an amount of reticence on the part of those who were the guardians of these special secrets, that was most difficult to overcome.

It is not at all unlikely, however, that when one tribe after the other was broken up, and the fugitive members dispersed in all directions, after they were harried and hunted like so many wild beasts by the grasping invaders of their ancient hunting grounds, the knowledge of the composition and preparation of the various poisons employed by them, and so necessary to their preservation, became more widely diffused ; but as far as can be ascertained, in the days of their undisturbed possession this was not so, such secrets being retained exclusively in the families of the ruling chiefs, the knowledge being rigidly with- held from those outside this sacred circle, an illustration that even among the Bushmen the truth of the axiom was recognised that " Knowledge is Power."

Thus it is that frequently so much difficulty is experienced in obtaining information from this old-world race. Acting up to the traditions of their fathers, they often either profess a profound ignorance, evade the inquiries, or maintain a mysterious silence.

However, in discovering the antidote alluded to, Mr. Chapman states that he had asked the question again and again, but could never obtain the desired information, until one day happening to hear some Bushmen expatiating on the wonderful powers of the white men, especially having with their own eyes seen them consulting the stars by means of a glass, he took the opportunity of a lad's coming in with a collection of insects, among which were the poison grub and beetle, to ask them abruptly, just as if he had known all about it, " What do you call that plant with which you cure the poison of the ‘Th-a ? "

The Bushmen answered at once “ 'Kalahetlue," its Sechuana name, adding, " But who told you about it ? " and concluded with the remark, " These white men are children of God, they know everything ! " In making further inquiries on the subject from different Bushmen, he found they were reserved about this antidote, and as he heard, had even preferred death to divulging the secret ; but although they all professed ignorance of the antidote for the 'Th-a, yet finding that Mr. Chapman knew a great deal about it, these men corroborated everything he had before heard.

This 'Kalahetlue grows wherever the grub is found. It is a tuber, which he discovered was the favourite food of steenboks and duikers ; the leaves are long, thick, narrow, pulpy, and lanceolate, with a strong indentation down the middle, and in colour a dull green. The mode, however, of applying this antidote seems still to remain a secret.

There is, so Mr. Chapman asserts, a creeping tendrilous plant, called " eokam " by the Bushmen, which they consider a specific against snake-bites. It is with the root of this that the Bushmen are said to cure themselves of the most venomous bites. About eight or ten grains, either eaten or taken as a decoction, act as an emetic. The dose is repeated about three times, when the patient is cured.

They also tattoo and scarify their bodies, and make an incision near the wound, which they suck with some of the root chewed in their mouths. This is evidently to prevent the poison from acting upon the gums in case of bleeding. The sucking out of the poison is not necessary, but is done by way of precaution. Bushmen having a piece of this root strung among their charms and medicines around their necks " laugh at snake-bites."

But still so difficult is it to obtain information from Bushmen with regard to this poison and these antidotes, that Mr. Chapman states it was only after waiting ten years that he succeeded in gaining the knowledge here detailed, and he considered it quite a triumph that he at last succeeded in extracting so much of the secret from them. He believes that to become an expert naturalist one ought to turn Bushman and conquer the language, when one would learn more about the natural history of many things than from books and years of study and experiment. They live and depend for existence on animals and insects, and therefore are obliged to know all about their habits and instincts.

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Another poison used by them was extracted from the Amaryllis distichia (Paterson), which was called " mal gift," or mad poison, by the Dutch and Namaqua Hottentots, from the effects usually produced on the animals which were wounded by the weapons impregnated with it. It was thus prepared : the bulbs were dug up about the time they were putting out their leaves, and cutting them transversely, a thick fluid was extracted, which was kept in the sun until it became quite of the consistence of gum. It was then kept fit for use, and laid on the arrows near the points. This poison was used chiefly for animals which were intended for food. The milk of one species of euphorbia was also used both for their arrows and for poisoning water.

The Bushmen of the West used a poisonous insect for one of their most virulent preparations. This was the most horrid-looking of all the African spiders, commonly called the trapdoor spider.N This appears to have been pounded and mixed with the extract of the amaryllis.

Notes: The following anecdote is sufficient to show the venomous character of this spider. Dr. N. Rubidge, F.G.S., was collecting insects near the Van Staade's river, Uitenhage, and after having filled all his boxes, found a very rare specimen of a tree frog of a beautiful green colour, and for want of a better receptacle placed the captive in a wide-mouthed pickle-bottle.

Shortly afterwards he discovered one of these spiders of large size, which he also consigned to the same prison. As soon as the spider reached the bottom, the frog seemed to recoil with horror, and pressed itself close to the side of the bottle. When the spider recovered it turned upon its fellow-captive, darted savagely at it, and gave it two savage bites in quick succession. The frog, although larger than the spider, did not attempt to move. A few seconds after it was seized with trembling, followed by a convulsion, and it expired immediately.

The Bushmen of the East (the present Queenstown division and beyond) principally used the venom of snakes, the milk of the euphorbia, and the extract from the poison amaryllis.

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The poisons most relied on by the Bushmen of the 'Nu 'Gariep, the Caledon, and the 'Gij 'Gariep were the venom of snakes, together with scorpions and spiders crushed up, the poison amaryllis, and the milk of a small plant found growing in many parts of the Free State and British Basutoland, called Motlatsisa by the Basutu. So poisonous do some of the natives believe this latter plant to be that they refuse to touch it, lest any of the milk should get upon their fingers.

These Bushmen adopted the following method in the preparation of their poisons. A fiat, smooth, stone was procured, very similar to the one used for roasting the " ants' eggs " ; this was placed on the fire, and the milky juice of the Motlatsisa or of the amaryllis was set upon it. This was then worked up with a wooden spatula until it began to attain a certain consistency, when the venom of the snake or other poisonous ingredient was gradually added, and the mixing continued until the whole mass had acquired a dark wax-like appearance, when it was worked up into a lump and reserved for use.

The season for making this preparation was during the summer months. It was kept in a little bag until required for use. In employing it a small portion was placed upon a " poison-stone," and the part of the arrow to be anointed pressed upon it and worked round and round until it had acquired the proper shape. It was never touched with the fingers, and great care was taken that none adhered to the hands or nails during these processes.

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THE BUSHMEN'S METHODS OF HUNTING AND FISHING


There can be no doubt that the life of the wild hunters of old must have been one which would necessarily tend to develop in a very high degree habits of endurance, and of both bodily and mental activity unknown to those whose occupation was confined principally to pastoral pursuits.

Caution and strategy, coolness and presence of mind were qualities which must have been steadfastly cultivated through many generations to have enabled a race like the Bushmen to arrive at the degree of excellence which they attained, and which has made their swiftness, their keenness of sight, their ready resource in cases of emergency, the marvel of all those who have taken the trouble to examine these striking traits of their character.

In the days of undisturbed occupation by the early Bushmen, the country literally swarmed with game, both large and small. The Bushmen state that in the days of their fathers a number of large animals lived in the country, which afterwards became extinct and disappeared from the face of the earth.

Some of these extinct species are still to be found depicted in their caves ; and it is certain that animals still living had a much wider distribution in South Africa than they have been known to have since the advent of Europeans. The gemsbok (Oryx capensis) was once found on the plains drained by the Zwart Kei (t'Nu- t'Kay and 'Neiba), and the giraffe browsed on the trees of the Tsomo and other portions of the lower country ; while pythons must have been abundant along the banks of the rivers.

Immense herds of buffalo must have frequented the brakes, and thousands of elephants roamed through the forest glades, not only of the coast line, but also in every other portion of the country where a sufficiency of succulent food could be procured ; while the abounding hippopotami laved their broad sides in every deep pool to be found throughout the land.

Instead of the deep chasms now found cutting through and draining the water from the plains, the result of excessive sheep-farming, chains of deep zeekoegats, or hippopotamus' pools, occupied their place, and wide spreading beds of reeds not only surrounded them, but frequently linked them together in one unbroken line. Innumerable herds of gnus, quaggas, zebras, ostriches, elands, and various other antelopes were scattered over the plains in countless myriads. This state of things existed in many parts of South Africa up to the middle of last century, and survived to the north of the 'Nu 'Gariep until the exterminating firearms of the Griquas and the Dutch were introduced.

In such a country, and endowed with the activity which it is known they possessed, it is not at all likely that the Bushmen would be the starving miserable people which some have delighted to depict them, before the stronger races invaded their hunting-grounds. Their powers of vision were extraordinary. They were able not only to descry, but to describe, objects at a distance, which were almost invisible to Europeans except with the aid of a telescope.

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This wonderful keenness of sight, the unerring manner in which they could follow upon the trail of either men or animals, gave rise to a tradition among the old Hottentots that there was once a race of men in South Africa who, instead of having eyes in their head, had them placed in their feet, so that it was impossible for any one to escape from their pursuit, on account of their quickness in discovering the trail.

Every precaution was taken not to alarm the game more than possible, and for this reason the Bushmen as a rule never drank of the water nearest to their cave or kraal. This was on account of the strong odour which they always, from their peculiar habits, carried about with them, and which they would certainly leave behind if they daily frequented the neighbourhood of the fountain ; thus the scent would frighten away the game, and tend to lessen their means of subsistence. To prevent this, they dug holes at a distance, from which a supply could be obtained.

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A number of devices and disguises were constantly employed by the old hunters to facilitate approach to the objects of their attack. When taking the field against the elephant, the hippopotamus, or rhinoceros, they appeared with the head and hide of a hartebeest over their shoulders, and whilst advancing towards their quarry through the long grass, would carefully mimic all the actions of the animal they wished to represent.

They appeared again in the spoils of the blesbok, with the head and wings of a vulture, the striped hide of the zebra, or they might be seen stalking in the guise of an ostrich. Sometimes a large tuft of grass like an enormous rayed crown was tied round their heads, and then none but the most practised eye could detect anything besides a slight rustling in the grass as they stealthily moved along.

Among the various modes that they adopted in watching game or their enemies, without exposing themselves to view, was to lie on their backs, with their feet towards the object they wished to look at, then throwing the head well backward, they gradually raised it until they could look under their eyelids, just over their cheeks, in such a manner as not to expose the forehead above the line of sight, their nose alone being higher than the level of the rock or grass over which they were peering.

Doubtless such a mode of observation would be a difficult operation to any except an adept ; but they from constant practice rendered themselves such proficients that they were able to descry, in this position, objects at a considerable distance with the greatest accuracy. In this position also the foot was sometimes used in drawing the bow, whenever they wished to give increased force and impetus to their arrows.

In their paintings we constantly find both huntsmen and warriors using the disguises we have here mentioned. They are shown with the heads and horns of various animals, or else with heads and beaks of different birds ; they evidently prided themselves upon the correctness of the representation. These drawings would appear to any one not acquainted with the habits and customs of this old hunter race to be intended for symbolic, or supernatural deities, around which some ancient myth was embodied.

As it is quite certain that the custom of representing various deities with the heads and coverings of birds and animals must date back to a very remote antiquity, such a misconception is suggestive that all elaborations of this description had their origin in the fact that among the primitive hunter tribes disguises of this kind were constantly used and we can easily imagine that in those early days, when all history was mere verbal tradition, that any of their number rendering themselves more famous than their fellows, by their superior strategy, would after they had passed away have their deeds and successful daring recounted over and over again, and that these would be handed down from generation to generation. Their modes of attack, the disguises they had worn, their appearance and their arms, the great achievements they had accomplished, and the mighty victories they had won, would be again and again recited.

According to the descriptive powers of the ancient narrator, would the recital of their prowess be more and more elaborated and intensified, until the magnitude of their reported deeds would be considered something more than human, proving, as it would be said, the degeneracy of the men of their race then living. The extraneous disguises that they wore would become identified with their own personality, as indicating some great attributes with which the growing veneration of their descendants invested them, until, in process of time, their human origin would be lost in the obscurity of an almost unknown past, and only the deified recollections of them would remain.

Men whose memories were capable of retaining the largest amount of this cherished folk-lore, who could display the greatest energy in its recital, would naturally be looked upon with more admiration by their fellows than others less gifted, while an innate and natural desire to still further arouse the enthusiasm of their auditors would incite their vivid imaginations, at each declamatory repetition, to wilder flights of rude oratory, until the admiration of their hearers grew into awe ; and the narrators, as a necessary sequence, in the course of time were themselves looked upon as men possessed of superior power, denied to their less gifted co-patriots, until they became reverenced as the special keepers of those traditions which were ultimately deemed as possessing some mysterious and sacred authority, thus giving rise to the germ and the development of a priestly caste.

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Many, or rather all, the Kaffir tribes, before they came into contact with more civilised races, thought the spirits of their great chiefs were the paramount power of the universe. They had no ideas of a deity beyond this.

The Bushman representations of the disguises of their great huntsmen and warriors would seem to point to the true origin of many of the bull, eagle, and other headed divinities, and much of the human element which we find introduced into ancient and modern religions. In this progression from the natural to the supernatural, the Bushmen shew in their paintings the earliest stages of the process of exaltation ; while the sculptured and pictured remains of the ancient Hindus, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians display, among the other creeds, its highest elaboration and development.

When the Bushmen wished to prevent the game from passing a certain line, and yet were not numerous enough to form a cordon along it, they employed the device of planting stout wands about their own height, dressed with ostrich feathers, and a tuft of them fastened to the top.

These were planted at short distances from one another along the line they wished to mark out. The game appeared more terrified at sight of these than of the Bushmen themselves, and generally rushed from them in the greatest alarm. Even the lion himself very rarely approached them, but would skulk away whenever possible. In places where the lions were more daring, a strong sharp point was made at the end of them, which was rendered still more dangerous by being poisoned ; in later days a small blade of an assagai was fastened and concealed among the feathers, so that when the indignant animal sprang upon it, it was so placed as either to impale him or inflict a deadly wound with its poisoned point.

In stalking the quagga the Bushmen generally disguised themselves in skins of the ostrich, with a long pliant stick run through the neck to keep the head erect, and which also enabled them to give it its natural movement as they walked along. Most of them were very expert in imitating the actions of the living bird.

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When they sighted a herd of which they wished to attack, they did not move directly towards them, but leisurely made a circuit about them, gradually approaching nearer and nearer. Whilst doing so the mock bird would appear to feed and pick at the various bushes as it went along, or rub its head ever and anon upon its feathers, now standing to gaze, now moving stealthily towards the game, until at length the apparently friendly ostrich appeared, as was its wont in its natural state, to be feeding among them.

Singling out his victim, the hunter let fly his fatal shaft, and immediately continued feeding ; the wounded animal sprang forward for a short distance, the others made a few startled paces, but seeing nothing to alarm them, and only the apparently friendly ostrich quietly feeding, they also resumed their tranquillity, thus enabling the dexterous huntsman to mark a second head, if he felt so inclined.

But as these primitive hunters never wantonly slaughtered for the mere sake of killing the game, like those who boast a higher degree of civilisation, they generally rested satisfied with securing such a sufficiency as would afford a grand feast for themselves and their families, quite content with knowing that as long as the supply lasted their feasting, dancing, and rejoicing would continue also.

That these huntsmen, as long as the game was comparatively undisturbed, had an abundance of food is proved by the testimony of every observant traveller, some of whom have also noticed that the very dogs among the Bushmen were invariably fat and in good condition, whereas among both Kaffirs and Hottentots the dogs were never more than a pack of wretched-looking, half-starved curs.

Captain Harris, who travelled through the country with the eye of an intelligent sportsman, is conclusive upon this subject : " In many places," he writes, " the ground was strewn with the blanched skeletons of gnus and other wild animals, which had evidently been slaughtered by Bushmen, and traces of these troglodytes waxed hourly more apparent as the country became more inhabitable. The base of one hill, in particular, in which some of their caves were discovered, presented the appearance of a Golgotha ; several hundred gnus and bonteboks' skulls being collected in a single heap."

As the ostrich was one of the most wary of the inhabitants of the South African plains, the Bushmen adopted several methods of hunting it, but all depending on imitation or strategy.

Somewhat allied to hunting was their searching for bees' nests, and they showed not only their dexterity in the manner of discovering their retreats, but also their daring in securing this much coveted spoil. They would watch for the laden bees as they were returning to their hives towards the evening, at which time they fly straight to their habitations ; and with their keenness of vision the Bushmen would be able to detect the direction which the industrious insects took. This they would follow, still watching for returning bees, until they at last came to the spot where the nest was hidden.

Should they pass it in their first attempt, they would soon perceive that the bees were coming from the opposite direction, when they would try back until the place was found. A beehive of this kind in the mountains when once discovered became the sacred property of the finder. Woe to the man who carried off the honey from a marked hive, which was usually distinguished by stones heaped up before it as a beacon. There have been instances where such an encroachment was punished with death.

They had also a most useful ally and assistant in carrying out this work in the honey-bird — the " Bee-cuckoo " — (Cuculus indicator), of Sparrman, and called " honing wijzer," the honey- guide, by the Hottentots and Dutch. As soon as a Bushman heard its well-known and alluring cry of " cherr, cherr, cherr," he was immediately on the alert, as he knew by experience that the bird was desirous of attracting attention. Finding that it had been successful in doing this, it flew a short distance in front, repeating the cry.

As the Bushman followed, it again went a little farther, slowly and by degrees towards the quarter where the swarm of bees had taken up their abode, all the while repeating its cry of " cherr, cherr." The Bushman answered it now and then with a low gentle whistle, to let the bird know that its call was attended to. Approaching the bees' nest, it flew shorter distances, and repeated its note with greater earnestness.

On arriving at the cleft of the rock, the hollow tree, or cavity in the ground, it hovered over the spot for a few seconds, and then perched in silence on some neighbouring tree or bush, awaiting results. A small piece of comb containing young bees was generally left on the ground as a reward to the bird for its information. Bushmen searching for honey say that the bee-hunter must not be too generous at first, but merely give enough to stimulate the bird's appetite, when the shrewd little thing will show a second hive if there be another in the neighbourhood.

Up to a few years ago, in portions of the country visited by the writer, the miserable remnant of scattered Bushmen who still clung to the land of their fathers returned regularly during the summer to their old haunts, for the purpose of examining and taking as much honey as they required from the swarms of bees which had occupied the same hollows and crevices from time immemorial.

On their departure they always left certain private marks by which they could at once detect any attempt that might be made during their absence to pilfer from the hives, which, they considered, had descended from their ancestors to themselves.

Some of these krantz-nests, as they are termed, were reached, as before mentioned, by a kind of rude ladder formed of sharpened pegs of hard wood driven into the cracks and crevices in the face of the precipice, and often to a height that none except Bushmen or baboons would ever have dreamt of climbing on such a precarious footing ; but the writer has been assured by those who have witnessed them that they not only ascended without the least hesitation or symptom of fear, but also with a rapidity that was perfectly astonishing.

The writer has seen the remains of some of these ladders still sticking in the face of the krantz, in positions where, without the evidence of the projecting pegs, it could never have been believed possible for any human being to have scaled and driven in these holdfasts as he ascended to such heights upon such a perilous foothold.

In some cases, where even they found it impossible to reach the spot from below, on account of over-hanging rocks, they were frequently let down by their companions, with a long leathern thong, from some projecting ledge to the level of the nest below, and here, while dangling in midair, they would drive in a line of apparently fragile wooden supports, and thus form a sort of narrow platform, upon which they could either sit or stand whilst they abstracted the honey from the nests.

This was transferred to one of their leathern sacks, made of the skin of an antelope which had been flayed without any incision being made along the belly. The bags as they were filled were let down by another thong to the foot of the precipice, where another Bushman was in waiting to receive them.

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In 1870 there was still a small platform of this kind to be seen just under a bees' nest in the face of a precipice above the opening of Madolo's cave, the Cave of the Python, on the Zwart Kei. This was still visited every year by a small party of Bushmen, who up to that time had sheltered themselves in some of the fastnesses of the Great Kei, in their annual rounds, when they let themselves down in the manner described to secure their harvest of honey.

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One of the disguises very frequently used by the Bushmen, both in attacking an enemy and stalking game, was to bind a large tuft of long grass round their heads with a band, the ends of the grass covering not only their foreheads, but forming a mask for their faces, leaving only apertures through which they could look. In this manner they could gently raise their heads and securely survey from among the tall grass whatever might be approaching, without fear of being discovered when moving from one position to another.

They could rapidly wriggle along, with a snake-like movement on the ground, until they again raised their heads to see what progress they were making and the position of the game or their foe. Thus prepared, they would with great coolness and daring approach, totally unperceived and unexpected, within a very short distance of their enemies, and there remain watching their movements until a favourable opportunity presented itself of making an attack.

When it was their intention of attacking under such disguises, they generally divided themselves into two parties, one remaining out of sight at a distance until they knew that those advancing under cover of the tufted grass had attained their appointed position. The reserve party would then make their appearance at a considerable distance, and would commence endeavouring to draw their opponents towards the ambuscade, by flying long shots at them.

In all probability their enemies,, supposing that the only party of Bushmen attacking was that in front of them, would freely expose themselves in the attempt to drive them off, until on a sudden they found themselves assailed almost at close quarters with sharp flights of poisoned arrows, whizzing apparently from what seemed to be merely the long grass around them.

Although the great plains and many other places were frequently so infested with lions, that they were met with hunting about the country in packs of eight and ten together, and it would have been dangerous for others to traverse them, yet the little Bushmen were able to do so with impunity. It has been already pointed out that many of the small clans spent their lives in the midst of these wilds, with no other protection at night than their frail mat-huts, and yet, notwithstanding this, they slept in security, whereas multitudes of fugitives who fled into their country at various times were devoured when attempting to sleep in the same exposed situations.

It is said that the safety of the Bushmen depended upon a certain powder, long kept as a most profound secret, which they sprinkled at night upon their camp fires, and to which the lions showed such an antipathy that they would not approach the spot. The writer has been assured that this powder was composed of the spores of a peculiar fungoid plant, which grows exclusively upon the ant-hills of the country.

Daring as the Bushmen were in their attacks upon the lion, they were very cautious in their attacks upon the wild boar (Sus larvatus, Harris). " We would rather attack a lion on the plain," so they informed Sparrman, " than an African wild boar ; for this, though much smaller, comes rushing on a man as swift as an arrow, and, throwing him down, snaps his legs in two and rips up his belly before he can strike it and kill it."

The lions, on the contrary, seemed to have a dread of the Bushmen. When the latter discovered evidence that one of these beasts had made a full meal, they followed up his spoor so quietly that his slumbers were not disturbed. One of them then discharged a poisoned arrow at the savage sleeper from a distance of a few feet, while another threw his kaross over the animal's head. The surprise caused the lion to lose his presence of mind, and he bounded away in terror. In a short time the effects of the poison on the lion were terrible, and he was heard moaning in distress, while he bit the trees and ground in his agony and fury.

In hunting the larger game, such as the hippopotamus, the elephant, and the rhinoceros, three methods were employed. The first was by attacking them openly with their arrows and darts, when the animal was assailed on every side until it sank from its wounds, or it was disabled by being hamstrung, the tendons of its legs being severed by one of their large stone-headed harpoons.

A second method was catching them in pitfalls, and a third by constructing a trap, which has been called “ the harpoon- trap.” Pitfalls were at one time found along the banks of every stream and around almost every large pool in the country, and in many of the bush paths made by the wild animals.

Some of the tribes, where wood was procurable, made long fences, filling up the open spaces so that the only passages were those which were occupied by these treacherous traps, others again, where trees were scarce, erected long stone fences for the same purpose. Some of these were of such great length that after the tribes were broken up and they became a race of fugitives, travellers who saw them believed that works which displayed so much labour and perseverance could have only been accomplished by some pre-Bushman people. In later years the most extensive series of these works were found along the banks of such rivers as Zak River, Beer’s Vley, the ‘Nu ’Gariep, Caledon, Gumaap, ‘Gij ’Gariep, Kolong, and their tributaries.

In 1801, along the valley of the ’Gariep or Great river, pitfalls, with sharp stakes of hard wood in the bottom, and covered with grass, were numerous in the neighbourhood of the river. The points of these stakes were frequently poisoned. The spaces between the several holes were obstructed with fences, and thus the deer coming to the river for water, by striving to avoid the fences, fell into the pitfalls.

At the time of Governor Van Plettenberg’s visit to the Bushman country on the northern frontier, Colonel Gordon, who accompanied him, narrowly escaped with his life, by being precipitated with his horse into one of .these small abysses. They were even to be found in the country which was said by the friends of the Griquas to have been uninhabited when they first took possession.

In 1820, at the time of Mr. Campbell’s second visit, although the game had then become very scarce owing to the increase of muskets among the Griquas, a number of pitfalls were yet to be found at Kogelbeen Fontein and other places beyond Griquatown, which had been dug by the Bushmen for catching game. These were so spread round the pools that it made it hazardous to approach them in the dark.

Some of the large pitfalls intended for catching hippopotami were nine feet deep and proportionately large at the top. The labour, therefore, of making a number of such excavations with an implement of so primitive a description as the ’kibi must have been immense. The capture of a hippopotamus was the signal for feasting for the whole tribe, and nothing but gormandizing, dancing, and boisterous revelry continued as long as the supply lasted.

The exaggerated expressions of triumph employed by some of the Bushmen on returning from a successful hunt, either with their bows or the pitfall, showed the intense and somewhat extravagant joy with which they contemplated such an approaching feast, which may have followed after one of their enforced periods of fasting. This feeling was well illustrated in the hyperbolic address made by a successful Bushman on his return to the waggons of the traveller Baines, after making a few successful shots. “ Behold me ! ” he shouted, “ the hunter ! Yea, look on me, the killer of elephants and mighty bulls ! Behold me the Big Elephant ! the Lion ! Look on me, ye Damaras and Makalaka ! Admire and confess that I am a great bull-calf ! "

It was this same feeling which made the Bushmen, before they were driven from their country with such inhuman barbarity, welcome any party of hunters that came amongst them merely for that purpose. Thus it was when Messrs. Chapman and Baines passed one of their Kalahari villages, that the whole female community ran out after them in all possible stages of dress and undress, joyfully clapping their hands and singing the praises of the “ flesh-givers ” who had made them thick and sleek. And it was not long before the greater number of them, laden with their household gear, took the road ahead of the hunting party, with, the intention of keeping company to the next water.

Nor did hippopotami and antelopes alone fall into these treacherous pits ; the lion, with all his activity and strength, has been found impaled in them, and even the wary and prudent elephant thus fell into the hands of the Bushmen. These animals with their superior sagacity have been known to attempt to assist their unfortunate companion out of his difficulty by aiding him with their trunks, and cases are upon record where they have succeeded in doing so when the animal has been young.

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The third method employed by Bushmen for capturing large game, such as the hippopotamus, was that which has been called the harpoon trap. This ingenious contrivance consisted of a great block of wood, to which a poisoned blade was attached, which was suspended by a line over a bough that hung immediately over one of the foot-paths used by the animals on leaving the water ; the line was brought down and so placed across the path that when the victim struck his foot against it, it set loose the great block immediately above him, which falling with its weight and impetus drove the poisoned barb deep into its flesh. Some of the Bachoana adopted a similar method for entrapping these great brutes, but it is probable that in this, as in so many other methods which they employed in securing game, they have merely imitated the plans of the older race of hunters.

The Bushmen on some occasions, in order to ensure a supply of food, resorted to the expedient of poisoning the water of some of the drinking places. The substances principally used were the bulbs of the poisonous Amaryllis and branches of the tree Euphorbia , the latter when procurable appearing to be the most powerful. These poisons were also more fatal in their action upon some animals than others. This practice proved an additional danger to travellers who were unacquainted with the circumstance, though the natives generally used the precaution of leading off the water which was to be poisoned to a small drain, covering up the principal fountain.

The Bushmen had discovered several methods of capturing fish. One of these was that in which the national weapon was employed. The shaft was fastened to a long light line, and was used to strike the smaller sized fish as they came near the surface, when their dexterity in the use of the bow enabled them to ply their arrows with wonderful precision and success. For the larger fish the harpoon, such as we have already described, was used with a certainty of capture which astonished all those who were fortunate enough to witness these piscatory exploits.

A third, and equally ingenious device, was in the employment of fish-baskets, which have been called by some, as they answered the same purpose, Bushman fishing-nets. They were constructed upon the same principle as the eel-baskets of Europe. They were about six feet long, and from one and a half to two feet in diameter. Their manufacture displayed a wonderful amount of neatness and ingenuity. They were composed of reeds and twigs of the taaibosch, a wood noted for its toughness, placed alternately side by side, so that this alternation of dark and light bars gave the structure a pretty appearance.

They were bound together with cord made either of bruised rushes or inner bark of the mimosa. These were placed at intervals in proper positions along the reedy margins of the rivers, and near passages through which at certain seasons of the year the fish passed in great numbers, when ascending the streams before the spawning and rainy season. Similar to the fences so frequently placed between the spaces of the pitfalls, the reeds and rushes were so interlaced as to form a net-work which prevented the fish from passing in any other direction than through the openings left for baskets, to which they were further directed by the erection of small weirs, built of stones, leading to them.

The quantity of fish caught in this manner was sometimes very considerable, and added much to the feastings of the old Bushman race.

A plan identical with the above appears to have been adopted by the natives living on the banks of the Albert Nyanza. Sir Samuel Baker states that he went to the water side to examine the fishing arrangements, which were on an extensive scale. “ For many hundred feet the edges of the floating reeds were arranged to prevent the possibility of a large fish entering the open water adjoining the shore without being trapped. Baskets were fixed at intervals, with guiding fences to their mouths. Each basket was about six feet in diameter, and the mouth about eighteen inches.”

This remarkable identity between the methods adopted by wild tribes so widely separated as the banks of the Albert Nyanza and those of the ’Nu and ‘Gij ’Gariep is particularly interesting, and would seem to indicate that, as they are strikingly identical in every detail, the palm of invention must be awarded to the more primitive hunter race, which carried its discovery along with it in its southern migration, and that those farther to the north are mere copyists, having possibly acquired their knowledge from some of the scattered remnants of the rear-guard of the former, who were cut off in their retreat by the intervention of the stronger races.

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SOCIAL CUSTOMS OF THE BUSHMEN


It will be well now to describe the social customs of the Bushmen, such as may be included under the following heads : —

1. Marriage,
2. Games,
3. Music and Musical Instruments,
4. Dances,
5. Burial, heaps of stones, and some of their beliefs.

I. Marriage.
From the evidence we can gather upon this subject, it would appear that there was no uniform custom with regard to either marriage or polygamy which governed the Bushman race, but that the different tribes were each ruled by the more or less primitive ideas which they severally entertained. No degrees of relationship appear to have barred unions of this description, except those of parent and child, brother and sister, although it has been declared that among some of the isolated clans even this restriction did not exist.

It is said that owing to the extreme jealousy and passionate disposition of the women, some of the tribes never took more than one wife ; but it is certain that among the greater portion of them a plurality of wives was allowed, the number being mainly regulated by the force of circumstances, such as the abundance or otherwise of food, the position and influence of the man, and his power of attaching a number of women to himself. The young men frequently contented themselves with one, while few of middle age had less than two, a young and an old one.

The tie could be dissolved whenever the incompatibility of the pair became insupportable, and women sometimes deserted their husbands for a more alluring mate, but in such cases vengeance often fell upon the head of the abductor.

With regard to marriage ceremonies, they were generally no other than such as were inevitably necessary and agreeable to nature, viz. the consent of the parties.

Miss Lemue writes,N " Their marriage is not a bargain, like those which take place among the other native races, but a fight. When the young people have settled it between themselves, they tell the parents, who fix a day for the marriage. The Bushmen then come from everywhere, and bring as much meat as they can get.

The women smear themselves with red clay and put on their beads, when they all eat and are jolly. In the middle of this feast the young man catches hold of his bride ; her relations at once set on him with their ' kibis,' or digging sticks, and beat him on the head and everywhere ; all the Bushmen then begin to fight together, during which the young fellow must hold his bride fast and receive all the hammering they choose to give him, without letting his treasure escape ; if he can hold out they at length leave him, and he is a married man ; if not, and his charmer escapes from him, he will have to undergo a second ordeal some other time before he can again claim her."

NOTES: Notes of Charles S. Orpen ; Memoir of Miss L. E. Lemite, " upon Bush- men."

According to M. Arbousset, adultery was less common amongst the Bushmen with whom he was acquainted than amongst any other natives of the country. It appears certain, however, that all their quarrels which did not originate from trespass upon one another's hunting grounds arose about their women, the greater portion considering it " great fun " to inveigle away one another's wives.

It is very probable that they were similar to the old Koranas in this respect. The writer has been assured by some of the ancients of the latter people that they did not believe there was a single Korana woman who had not a favourite lover, besides her husband. And the strangest feature in the case appeared to be that, although the inamorato was known to all the kraal, the husband was the only one who was kept in profound ignorance of his favoured rival.

This fact shows the universality of the custom, for as soon as the husband was absent from the kraal, the whole of the community at once resolved themselves into a kind of guard of vigilance to prevent surprise, while the lovers could indulge in their stolen interviews without fear of interruption.

Should the husband be seen unexpectedly returning, some met him to attract his attention and delay his progress, while others hastened to warn the faithless pair of the approaching danger ; and yet these husbands, who assisted in thus hoodwinking one unfortunate and knew every other woman was frail, frequently had the infatuation to believe that their own wives were vestals. Thus it was that, should the amour of the wife be discovered by any unlucky chance, the enraged husband frequently inflicted condign punishment upon her gallant.

Thus among the wide-spread Bushman tribes different stages in the development of the marriage tie were to be found, from that most primitive form of simply pairing by mutual consent, to an elaborate contest, when on a fixed wedding-day the endurance and sincerity of the bridegroom were tested to the uttermost ; while we must at the same time be struck with the consideration which these so-called untamable savages evinced towards the widows found in their community. No piece of game was ever eaten without their receiving a share.

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2. Games.
At one time, in the days of their prosperity, the Bushmen had many games, in which they indulged in their leisure hours to diversify the dance. Some of these pastimes were intended for the daytime, others again were set apart for the evening. Most of them, however, are now lost, although there are still enough rescued from oblivion to show that they might be divided into three classes, of which the following may be given as illustrative specimens : —

I. The 'Nadro, or disguise. They appeared to have had an almost passionate fondness for dressing themselves up in masquerading fashion, in the guise of some animal or other, so that it was not only in hunting and war that they simulated the wild animals by which they were surrounded, but even in their amusements, their games, and dances.

One of the latter kind, the most popular and frequently resorted to, was that in which the older women of the horde indulged, and which was specially called 'Nadro. They disguised themselves by fastening the head and horns of some wild animal upon their own, and so painting and enveloping the rest of their body in the hide of the beast, that they looked more like some wild or supernatural monster than a human being.

Figures of this kind were frequently represented in their paintings, which have led some to imagine that they were representations of supernatural personages who shadowed forth an ancient tribal myth. That such may have been the case with some of them is undoubted, but it is equally certain that the old Bushmen who inhabited the rock-shelters containing the cave-paintings in question have been unanimous in asserting that it was the 'Nadro alone which was there represented.

The painting was originally intended to be a matter-of-fact delineation of the leading figure in a game, to which some mythological interpretation has afterwards been given. This particular disguise was generally adopted in the evening, when one so dressed and carrying a small stick with which to make a rattling noise, would suddenly and unexpectedly come upon the assembled group of the horde, which always had the effect of startling the younger people, while even the old members would in the first impulse of the moment get out of the way of the rather unearthly looking apparition with no small degree of trepidation.

As the alarm subsided, it was succeeded by bursts of merriment at the consternation and confusion which had been occasioned. They also disguised themselves in the same manner in some of their grand masquerade dances, when each impersonated some different animal and acted his or her part accordingly.

II. Other games were such as required both skill and presence of mind, and were generally, if not exclusively, manly games. One of these might be termed the training game, although only experts would dare to join in it. All who have witnessed the Bushmen use their apparently fragile weapons have expressed astonishment at the dexterity with which they handle them, as well as the certainty of their aim and the rapidity with which one arrow is sped after the other.

They were not only true in their aim, but they were equally dexterous in avoiding any hostile shafts that were launched at them. The game in question would therefore seem to be intended as a necessary training to enable these warrior-huntsmen to attain the desired degree of proficiency in this latter particular.

Two Bushmen, each with a certain number of arrows, would take up a standing, sitting, or lying position opposite to one another, and then at a given signal let fly at one another, one after the other, with as great rapidity as possible, each with equal rapidity trying to avoid the shafts of his opponent. Sometimes the arrows were arranged in a row before them, or, as worn in war or hunting, in a fillet bound round the head.

The younger and more inexperienced were matched one against the other, whilst the oldest and most proficient members of the tribe would try their skill upon one another. When we consider that this game was played, not like some modem tournaments with half severed and mock lances, but with genuine poisoned arrows, we may form some idea of the peril which accompanied it. Every Bushman engaging in it was furnished not only with his bow and arrows, but also a kind of small horn bottle slung at his belt, in which he carried a powerful remedy against any unfortunate wound he might receive in the friendly encounter.

During the trial of the younger ones, one or other was occasionally struck by an arrow, when some of the antidote was immediately swallowed. An accident of this kind never occurred when the more experienced Bushmen encountered one another. Sometimes they sat upon the ground opposite to each other, and then with the greatest coolness a simple inclination of the head, or a rapid twist of the body, enabled them to avoid the well aimed shaft launched against them, and which in all probability passed within an inch or two of their bodies. At other times they were ever on the move, now springing on this side, now on the other, now prostrate on the ground, now leaping from it on all-fours with extended arms and legs high into the air, with all the agility of an excited baboon that would avoid the unpleasant missiles that are thrown at it.

This was a favourite game among them, and from being looked upon as a proof of vigorous manhood, was frequently depicted by their artists among their cave paintings.

III. A third class of games also showed skill, but in these it was accompanied with a certain amount of legerdemain. One of these became so universally popular that it has been adopted and perpetuated among other tribes, by whom it is known as Bushman cards.

Sparrman saw them playing this game about 1775 in the Zuurveld, and the writer during the time he was engaged in the geological survey of the Orange Free State in 1877-8 saw some of his attendants amusing themselves round their evening camp-fires with the identical pastime. Sparrman calls it a peculiar game, which was played not only by these people but the Hottentots also.

" Two or four sit on their hams, facing each other. The game always appears to be played with ardour, and seems to consist of an incessant motion of the arms upwards, downwards, and across each other's arms, without seeming (at least on purpose) to touch one another ; they appear in certain circumstances mutually to get the advantage over each other, as each of them at times would hold a little peg between his forefinger and thumb, at which they would burst out into laughter, and on being asked the reason said they lost and won by turns.

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One grew weary after playing two hours, others kept on the sport from evening until break of day, during the whole time continually pronouncing, or rather singing, the following words, Hei pruah pr'hari'ka, 'hei fruah fhei, 'hei pruah 'ha. Of the words they did not know the meaning, but said that some of their tribe, together with the game, had learnt them from the tribes a great way to the north."N

Notes: A game very similar to Bushman Cards appears to have been played by the ancient Egyptians ; and is represented in paintings, a copy of which will be found in Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's Egyptians, p. 17.

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M. Arbousset, who saw some Basutus playing this game in 1836, gives the following explanation. " Two or three people sit side by side or opposite each other, one of them picks up a stone, or small piece of wood, all move their arms about in an excited manner, the one with the small piece of wood passing it with as much rapidity as possible from one hand to the other, ' so as to bewilder the other players, and then presents his clenched hands to his companions to guess where the wood is.

If the guesser is mistaken, the holder of the wood exclaims triumphantly, ' Ua ya incha, kia ya khomo,' in a kind of song or cadence, meaning, ' You eat the dog, I eat the beef.' In the opposite case, the player declares himself vanquished, when the guesser touches the hand containing the wood, saying ' Kia ya incha, ua ya khomo,' ' I eat the dog, you eat the beef,' and delivers the wood to his companion to do the same. The players will sometimes keep up this game for hours at their evening fires."

It will be observed that the rhythm of the two sentences given by Sparrman and Arbousset is very similar, great stress being laid upon the penultimate syllable ; and it is highly probable that the meaning of both is very much alike. That heard by Sparrman was probably a corruption of the language of the northern Bushmen, of which the players, although they had retained the cadence, did not know the meaning. This would be a case exactly similar to that which came under the writer's own observation.

Among his attendants he had a tame Bushman, who had never learnt the language of his fathers, and a Motaung. These two would play at this game for hours almost every evening ; they used two sentences, which sounded like corrupted Bushman. The rhythm was exactly similar to that given by M. Arbousset, while the cadence might be rendered by the following notes : —

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When asked the meaning of the words they used, both said they could not tell, but it was said they were Bushman. As a pleasing coincidence, whilst in the conquered territory of the Orange Free State, the writer found in two widely separated caves pictorial representations of two groups of Bushmen playing this very game. The action of the arms and position of their bodies were unmistakable ; so strikingly natural were they that upon the Bush-boy first seeing them he exclaimed at once, " Oh ! sir, here they are playing at Bushman cards." Both paintings were very old, and had certainly been done before the Basutu occupation of that portion of the country, thus giving an unexpected confirmation of the Bushman origin of the game.N

Notes: Since writing the above, Miss Lucy C. Lloyd has given the following description of a game of skill played by the Bushmen living to the north-east of Damaraland : " It is played with a kind of shuttlecock, i.e. with a short stick with two or three feathers tied to its upper end, and weighted at its lower extremity by a berry or a button attached to it. This is thrown into the air, and beaten with another stick, to keep it up, time after time, much as a shuttlecock should be kept up (in the game of battledore and shuttlecock)."

Miss Lloyd's Bushman authorities assured her that this is one of the old games played by members of their tribe in their own land. This discovery is an interesting one, as tending to prove that this popular game of English children is probably one (by being thus known to so primitive a race as the Bushmen) of high antiquity.

3. Music and Musical Instruments.

The Bushmen in their undisturbed state might have been termed the most musical people in South Africa, as in both the number of their tunes for dances and the variety of their musical instruments they were unsurpassed by any other native races. It seems certain that the Coast Kaffirs were totally unacquainted with any kind of instrument whatever except those which were of undoubted Bushman origin, and it is a question whether most of those in use by the Bachoana and Basutu tribes were not derived originally from the same source. Some of them were undoubtedly so.

The songs also of these stronger races, which accompanied their dances, showed little variation, and dwelt almost entirely on two or three notes, while the Bushmen, on the contrary, not only had a multitude of dances, but each dance had its own special tune adapted to it, which, although confined to five or six notes, were capable of much modification. In fact, in comparison with the other races the Bushmen might have been termed passionately fond of music, and from the writer's experience some of their simple refrains had as much effect upon their feelings as our own more perfect and elaborate compositions have upon civilised men.

This the writer had fortunately an opportunity of witnessing, whilst exhibiting a portfolio of copies of their own cave-paintings to some old Bush-people. The old man, whose name was 'Ko-rin-na (called Danster by the Boers and Basutu), was apparently between seventy and eighty years old, while his wife, 'Kour-'ke, was about ten years younger. The meaning of his name was flat-stone, probably derived from the place of his birth.N

Notes: Kwa-ba, alias Toby, in his evidence (Notes of Charles S. Orpen) says : — " Bushman children are named from the place where they were born. I have four ; and all are called T'kout-'koo, from Bethulie, the Bushman name of which was T'kout-'koo. The oldest is T'kout-'koo-'tn'goi, or the eldest T'kout-'koo, the second is called Middle T'kout-'koo, and so on. Children were not called after their father, but from some cave, river, bush, or tree where, or near which, they were born."

He originally belonged to the tribe which inhabited the Bushmanberg on the Caledon. When his tribe was attacked and driven thence, he fled to 'Co-ro-ko, the last great Bushman captain of the 'Kou-we, i.e. the Mountain, the present Jammerberg of the Orange Free State and Basutuland. Here he married 'Kou-'ke, who was the niece of the chief 'Co-ro-ko. His father's name was 'Gou-roun-'ko, and his mother's, Tuk'rm-ku-kuba. Although all the rest of the 'Kou-we tribe had been annihilated he and his wife were still clinging to their old haunts and caves in the Mountain, under the protection of a petty Basutu or Bataung captain, named Ramanape, that is the father of Manape.

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The old man still retained his bow and arrows, together with a number of other Bushman implements. He was very proud to show how he worked with his bone awls, etc. His wife was very intelligent, and was evidently well versed in the folklore of her tribe. Unfortunately the time was too short to permit the writer to avail himself of the knowledge she possessed ; and such was the dread of the Boers which animated these unfortunates, that no offer that could be made would induce them to stay even for a short time within the Free State border.

This interesting old couple expressed their delight continuously, as with twinkling eyes they were shown the different copies of their cave-paintings, explaining all they saw, and emphatically terming them " their paintings," " their own paintings," " the paintings of their nation." Coming at length to the copies of some dances, old 'Kou'ke immediately exclaimed, " That, that is a grand dance. It is the 'Ko-'ku-curra ! " " This," she said, " had gone out of fashion when she was a little girl, but used always to be danced in the days of her grandmother's grandmother. I know it ! I know the song ! " And at once, moving her head and body to the time, commenced the following :—

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Whilst 'Kouke was singing the upper line, the old man became visibly affected, and kept continually touching her arm, saying, " Don't ! Don't ! " She, however, continued, when he again said, almost pitifully, " Don't ! Don't sing those old songs, I can't bear it ! It makes my heart too sad ! " She still persisted, with more animation than before, evidently warming with the recollection of the past, until at length the old man, no longer able to resist the impulse, broke into the refrain shown in the second line. They looked at each other, and were happy, the glance of the wife seeming to say, " Ah ! I thought you could not withstand that ! "

One was not prepared to meet with such a display of genuine feeling as this among people who have been looked upon and treated as such untamably vicious animals as this doomed race are said to be. It was a proof that " all the world's akin," and was certainly a Bushman edition of " John Anderson, my Jo, John."

Upon looking at another painting which represented a number of Bushmen hunters with their bows in their hands and their arrows filleted around their heads dancing, she said that was a dance for huntsmen, and that it was called the 'Kahoune ; to this she gave the following tune and refrain : —

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As an additional proof of the powerful effect which the sight representation of their of these paintings, together with the dances and the wild music with which 'Kouke accompanied them, old 'Ko-rin-'na, whilst the recital and song was going on, the ice having once been broken, disappeared behind the waggon, and shortly afterwards reappeared with his head arrayed with a perfect coronet of barbed arrows, most artistically arranged, swaying at the same time his old grey head, in evident glee, backwards and forwards to the cadence of the tune, as he came towards us, and continued the dance as long as his wife continued singing, saying that " now he was a young man again " !

A third dance, she said, was the 'Kou-coo. It was the grand dance of the Bushmen. The dancers were always in full dress of skins cut into various patterns ; they also wore head-dresses and large hollow balls made of dry hide fastened to their upper-arms or shoulders. These hollow instruments contained a number of small pebbles, and were shaken with a sudden jerk in the measured time of the refrain which accompanied the dance ; this she gave as follows : —

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We have already given the music of the song which accompanies the playing of the game of Bushman cards, and which evidently proves itself to be of Bushman origin, if we compare it with the foregoing and the monotones in which most of the Kaffir compositions are chanted. Having thus gained some little insight into the Bushman's talent for music, we will now pass on to the consideration of the instruments which have been found in his possession or represented in his paintings. This is a subject of great interest, as it enables us to learn, from a Bushman point of view, the probable primitive germ of many of the complicated and beautiful instruments of a more advanced stage of civilisation.

Among the early races of men, the first attempt at a musical accompaniment was in all probability the regular clapping of hands to the time of the dance or the song. By such sounds its movements might be regulated, and the multitude of dancers be brought into uniform action. In their war dances the men danced and sang, or rather vociferously chanted, while the women accompanied them with the clapping of hands, and perchance, similar to some of the present Kaffir tribes with a long, droning, humming undercurrent of a refrain : —

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swelling and dying away as the excitement and vehemence increased or diminished. To this, after a time was added, to increase the effect, the beating of sticks in measured time, and still advancing, the beating on shields for the same purpose was introduced, a custom continued among the frontier Kaffirs until a very few years ago, and which may perhaps be still continued in some of the more isolated portions of the country, where the use of the shield has still been retained.

These nomadic warrior-herdsmen, who were far ruder and more warlike than the Bachoana and Basutu clans of the interior, had nothing among the arms they carried — their javelins, clubs and shields — which could suggest to their untutored minds any ideas of harmonious sounds, except the harsh rattle of their weapons upon the piece of dry hide which formed their means of defence ; and hence it was (from all the most reliable evidence which can be gathered bearing upon the subject) that they never had, until after they came in contact with the Bushman race, any knowledge of any other musical accompaniment than the clapping of hands, the beating of kerries and assagais, and the barbarous noise of their sounding shields.

A hunter race, however, armed with a bow and arrow possessed a considerable advantage over such tribes as these ; and the tinkling sound of his bow-string must have attracted his notice and aroused his attention. He discovered that by striking it with the shaft of his arrow, or a small wand, he could reproduce the pleasant sound at will, and, doubtless, by degrees he was led from this to use it as an instrument of music, and thus made an important advance beyond his more primitive accompaniments of the clapping of hands and the beating of sticks.

All these three methods were frequently found depicted in their cave-paintings, and amongst some of the most ancient yet preserved, Bushmen are represented as beating on their bowstrings while engaged in some of their numerous dances. Such then was doubtless the first musical instrument of the Bushman race, and such, in all probability, was the original germ which, commencing with the dawning ideas of prehistoric man, when the bow-strings of the mammoth hunters gave out the first musical sounds derived from an artificial source that ever fell upon the human ear, ultimately arrived at the perfection of the stringed instruments which have since been developed in the world.

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Happily the Bushmen afford us decisive information upon the early stages of this progressive development. Thus in Madolo's cave, on Lower Zwart Kei, we find a Bushman playing upon a bow to which an additional string has been added, so as to give a double harmony. Again, in another place, a bow is represented with four strings, evidently a primitive harp, being used as a musical instrument to accompany a dance.

This may be the reason why, on account of its origin, the harp in ancient times was considered a more fit instrument for the hands of men than of women. Le Vaillant, during his visit to this country in 1781-2 met with an instrument among some of these people, which was called a Rabouquin, made of a triangular piece of wood with three strings fastened with pegs, so that they could be tightened at pleasure and which when played were twanged with the fingers.

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A cave, in a deep ravine, forming one of the sources of the Eland's river, on the north-east face of the Malutis, furnishes us with another illustration of the progress of development in stringed instruments. It is the representation of a dance in which a great number of Bushmen are engaged ; the musician sits opposite to the centre of the line of dancers, whose bows have been collected and fixed in the ground before him so that the strings are all on a level and inclined towards him, upon which he is playing by striking with a bow-stick ; thus we are unexpectedly presented with the idea of a primitive dulcimer, composed of a combination of bows.

After a time it appears to have been discovered that by pressing the bow upon something hollow, the sound of the instrument was improved and increased. The Bushman used a tortoise- shell for his primitive sounding-board. This instrument became popular among the intruding tribes, and was called 'Kopo by some of the Coast Kaffirs, and 'To-mo by the Basutu.

By them a calabash was substituted instead of the more primitive shell used by the Bushmen. It was played by grasping the bow near the lower end with the left hand, the open mouth of the calabash was placed on the left breast, the notes from the string were varied by pressures of the left thumb and forefinger upon it whilst it was tapped with a small wand in the right hand. It was generally accompanied by the singing of the player, who frequently gave a kind of recitative performance whilst doing so.

Le Vaillant saw an instrument of very similar construction, which he said the Bushmen of the south called a 'Joum-'joum. It was generally played by a woman in a sitting posture. Placing the bow before her perpendicularly like a harp, holding the bottom firm with her foot, without touching the cord, she grasped the bow with her left hand about the middle, and whilst blowing upon the string, where a quill feather was attached, she struck the string with a wand about five to six inches long. This 'Joum-'joum would almost appear to have been a combination of the 'Kopo, and of another instrument called the 'Goura, of which we shall speak presently.

Another and more elaborate variety of the instrument we are speaking of was seen by Thompson. He states that he observed a Bushman playing on a Ra-ma'kie, which he describes as being about forty inches long by five broad, and having half a calabash affixed to one end, with four strings somewhat resembling those of a violin. Here then we find a further advance of a quadruple-stringed bow, joined with a calabash sounding-board, the nearest approach to a harp that the inventive faculty of the old Bushman race was capable of arriving at.

Another stringed instrument copied from the Bushmen was that called a 'Kan'gan by some of the Coast Tribes. It was made of a kind of compound bow, formed of three pieces, the centre being a strong piece of bamboo, about twelve inches in length. Two pieces of tough wood were then inserted, one into each end, about eighteen inches long and tapered off towards the tips like the extremities of a bow, giving it the appearance of some of the old classical bows of the northern hemisphere. This was then tightly strung with a fine line made of an antelope's sinew, which was again so braced down to the central piece of bamboo that the string was divided into two unequal lengths.

In playing upon the instrument, a portion of the bamboo was held in the mouth, and the string played upon with the forefinger of the right hand, in which it was held. The music, however, obtained from the Kan'gan was more for the performer's own private delectation than for the amusement of the general public.

The next instrument was the t‘Goer-ra, Goura, or Gora, called also Sesiba by the Basutu. It has been appropriated by both the Coast Kaffirs and the Basutu. This also is another invention which has, evidently, had its origin from the bow. In fact it is simply a bow in which one end of the string, instead of being fastened to the bow itself, is attached to a broad, thin, flexible tongue-shaped piece of quill, which is firmly fixed and spliced to the end of the bow.

It is this piece of quill which acts as a kind of mouth-piece, in a somewhat analogous manner to the soft reeds of the old-fashioned clarionets. The instrument was played by taking the quill in the mouth, and causing it to vibrate by strong inspirations and expirations of the breath, and therefore might be termed a wind-stringed instrument. The sounds produced are frequently very wild, harsh, and discordant. It is said that "with its help the Bushman could imitate the noise of a bellicose ostrich to perfection." N

Notes: Miss L. E. Lemue, Memoir on Bushmen. Notes by Charles S. Orpen.

Sometimes several musicians would perform on the 'Goura together, raising an unmelodious and unearthly din which however delightful it might prove to a native audience, would certainly be more suggestive of a dance of witches round an infernal cauldron, to ears more refined and cultivated, than anything else. Campbell who in his last journey heard an old man playing upon one of them, likened its sound to the word " dum- wharry, dum-wharry," pronounced in a hoarse hollow tone.

Another wind instrument was a kind of reed flute, or pipe, and was especially used in their old favourite dance called 'Ko-'ku-curra. The reeds were cut at a particular season, and the flutes made of different sizes and lengths, so as to obtain a variety of notes. They were made by one or two of the men who were skilled in their manufacture, but their use was reserved exclusively for the women. The Koranas esteemed this the most beautiful of all the native music, and introduced its use into several of their dances.

SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRINGED INSTRUMENTS FROM THE BUSHMAN BOW

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1. The Bushman Bow,
2. Do. do. with two strings.
3. Do. do. with four strings.
4. The Bushman 'Kopo, with Tortoise-shell Sounding Board.
5 The 'Kangan.
6. Compound Group of Bows.
7. Kopo, with four strings and Calabash.
8. The 'Goura or 'Gora.
8a. The Quill Mouth-piece of do.

Beyond these we find that the inventive faculty of the Bushmen, in their desire to increase their musical accompaniments, had enabled them to produce an instrument of percussion in the shape of a kind of tambour or drum, called by different writers a Romelpot (Le Vaillant), 'Tam-tam (Arbousset), and T'koi-t'koi (Sparrman). The two last were probably Bushman appellations derived from the sound emitted by it.N Some of them were formed of a portion of the shell of the great bush-tortoise, the bottom being cut away, and its place supplied with a skin stretched over it.

This was probably the most ancient invention, and where such shells were not procurable, they were driven to the necessity of substituting earthen pots, and these again, from their liability of being easily broken in the excitement of the dance, were displaced by a hollow block of wood, or even a large calabash after their contact with the stronger races. All these modes of construction, however, were retained among one or other of their tribes till within the memory of the present generation.

Notes: There are a number of Bushman words which, like many found in all primitive languages, are discovered to be, when analyzed, imitations of natural sounds : thus the above word T'koi-t'koi is an evident imitation of the beat of their drum. Hurroo (Barrow) was another word used by some of their coast tribes to indicate the breaking of the sea on the shore ; while 'Ka-boo (Barrow) and 'Khoo (Arbousset), both being pronounced with a strong palatal click, for a gun ; the click representing the striking of the hammer of the old flint-locks before the explosion ; hence also a white man was called by some of them a 'Khoo — i.e. the carrier of a gun, while Le Vaillant gives us 'Kgaap, a bow ; with a dental click in imitation of the twanging of the bow itself.

Those of earthenware were sometimes made of a pot in the form of a quoit, and covered with the skin of a springbok after being well softened and stripped of its hair. This therefore was more a kind of tambourine than a drum. Those made of a hollow block were from two to three feet in height, whilst the heads of the smaller kind were made of the skin of a steenbok, and those of the larger were sometimes formed of a piece of zebra skin. These were veritable drums, and were beaten with the hand or a stick.

The last instruments we shall notice were those which have been termed "Bushman bells." The larger kind were formed of a piece of dry hide, from which the hair had been scraped. They were in the shape of a large hollow sphere, and were fastened to either the upper arm or shoulder. The smaller ones were generally made of prepared springbok skin, and were either round like the others, or cup-shaped.

This latter kind was fastened round the ankles and wrists: they were from two to three inches in diameter. Sometimes a belt of small ones, the size of a pullet's egg, encircled the waist, or was worn across the shoulders. They all contained small pebbles, and made a noise in the agitation of the dance like the shaking of peas in a bladder. The effect of this was heightened when a number of Bush people were dancing and keeping regular time together.

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Their Dances.

We have already seen the fondness of the Bushmen for disguising themselves in masquerading dresses, representing various animals, birds, and imaginary monsters, either with the aid of paint or the skins, heads, and horns of the objects to be represented. Beyond this, however, their powers of mimicry were wonderfully striking, and thus they were able not only to assume the appearance, but the action, manner, and cries of the animal they wished to personify, with extraordinary accuracy.N It was this talent which enabled them to give such variety to their dances, an amusement of which they were passionately fond, and in which they indulged upon every fitting occasion.

The universality of this custom was shown from the fact that, in the early days, in the centre of every village or kraal, or near every rock-shelter, and in every great cave, there was a large circular ring where either the ground or grass was beaten flat and bare, from the frequent and constant repetition of their terpsichorean exercises. It was when food was abundant, after having eaten, that they gave rein to their favourite amusement. Feasting and festivity were ever accompanied with continuous dancing and rejoicing from the close of eve to the dawn of the returning day.

Notes: A Bushman once travelled with the writer, who was able to imitate on the sand the spoor of every animal, from an elephant to a steenbok, with such exactitude that it required a most practised eye to detect the counterfeit.

They had also their special seasons when the dance was never neglected, such as the time of the new and full moon. Dancing began with the new moon, as an expression of joy that the dark nights had ended, and was continued at the full moon, that they might avail themselves of the delicious coolness after the heat of the day, and the brilliancy of the moonlight in this portion of the southern hemisphere. It is probable that similar practices in a remote period gave rise, among some of the nations of antiquity, to their feasts and festivals of the new and full moon, which, as they emerged from the primitive barbarism of their ancestors, became connected in their observance with a number of religious rites and ceremonies.

Another marked time with the Bushmen was the approach of the first thunderstorm of the season, when it is stated that they were ever particularly joyful ; as they considered it an infallible token that the summer had commenced. In the midst of their excessive rejoicing they tore in pieces their skin karosses, threw them into the air, and danced for several nights in succession. On these occasions the 'Gariep Bushmen made great outcries, accompanied with dancing and playing upon their drums.

As the first thunder-storm was hailed with joy as a sign of returning warmth, so as the season advanced and some of the tremendous outbursts of elementary fury, which sometimes visit the country, made their appearance, their superstition and dread were aroused, which among some of the tribes culminated in fits of impotent rage, as if the war of the elements excited their indignation against the mysterious power which they supposed was the cause of it.

A desire to repel the storm, as they would a dangerous enemy, may have arisen from the fact that occasionally some of their caves have been destroyed in these storms, when the greater portion of the horde have been buried in the ruins, the projecting rocks jutting far over their rock-shelters appearing to have acted as more powerful conductors on these fatal occasions than the smoother face of the precipice on either side of the locality where the cave was situated. In 1877 and '78 the writer visited two spots where the caves had been destroyed by catastrophes of this kind, and where, in both instances, it was said that a number of Bush-people lost their lives.

Thus it was in all probability that a germ of the religious element sprang up in their breasts, and their superstition created the idea of, as he has been styled by Arbousset, the Chief of the Sky, whom they named 'Kaang, and who was also called Kue-A'keng-'teng, the Man, that is to say, the Master of all things, who according to their expression one does not see with the eyes but knows him with the heart, and who is to be propitiated in times of famine and before going to war, and that throughout the whole night by performing a certain dance.

From this we seem to learn something of the primitive ideas, which became more and more elaborated until dancing was looked upon as a religious ceremony, which, however licentious we may deem the greater portion of these ancient religious performances to have been, were nevertheless at the time earnestly entered into with a view of propitiating some fancied deity.

The dances of the Bushmen were carried out with an energy only equalled by that which they displayed in the chase. In many of them, as well as in their great hunts, they painted their bodies, some covering them with red, white, and yellow spots ; some entirely with red, others in parti-colours, as one portion of the body black, for instance the legs and arms and the lower part to the waist, the remainder white ; or the colours might be reversed, or red or yellow might be substituted for either the black or white or both.

Another fashion was to adorn one side of the body with one colour, the other with another, by way of contrast ; sometimes the whole would be painted black, red, or some other colour, and these again ornamented with spots, or straight or zigzag lines, or a combination of all these devices. These were evidently intended for their gala costumes, and were only indulged in before their enemies began to vent their remorseless rage upon them.

Some of their dances required considerable skill, such as that which may be called the ball dance. In this a number of women from five to ten would form a line and face an equal number in another row, leaving a space of thirty or forty feet between them.

A woman at the end of one of these lines would commence by throwing a round ball, about the size of an orange, and made of a root, under her right leg, and across to the woman opposite to her, who in her turn would catch the ball and throw it back in a similar manner to the second woman in the first-row ; she would return it again in the same way to the second in the second, and thus it continued until all had taken their turn. Then the women would shift their positions, crossing over to opposite sides, and again continue in the same manner as before ; and so on until the game was over, when they would rest for a short time and begin again.

Another ball dance was played merely by the men. A ball was made expressly for this game out of the thickest portion of a hippopotamus' hide, cut from the back of the neck ; this was hammered when it was perfectly fresh until it was quite round ; when finished it was elastic, and would quickly rebound when thrown upon a hard surface. In this performance a flat stone was placed in the centre upon the ground, the players or dancers standing around.

One of them commenced by throwing the ball on the stone, when it rebounded ; the next to him caught it, and immediately it was thrown again by him upon the stone in the same manner as by the leader, when it was caught by the next in succession, and so on, one after the other passing rapidly round the ring, until the leader or one of the others would throw it with such force as to send it flying high and straight up into the air, when during its ascent they commenced a series of antics, throwing themselves into all kinds of positions, imitating wild dogs, and like them making a noise " che ! che ! che ! " but in the meantime watching the ball, which was caught by one of them, when he took the place of leader, and the game was again renewed.

The play was sometimes varied by two players being matched against each other, each throwing and catching the ball alternately, until one of them missed it, when it was immediately caught by one of those in the outer ring, who at once took the place of the one who had made the slip, and thus the play continued.N

Notes: Notes by Charles S. Orpen.

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Some of the dances were intended for the women alone, others for the men ; sometimes the men and women danced together, but in separate lines facing each other, like the old country dance, at others intermingled alternately in a large circle.

The 'Ko-ku-curra, or as it might be termed from the instrument played during its performance, the reed or flute dance, was exclusively for women. This was also a kind of competition dance, as the women of one cave or kraal would send a challenge to those of another, informing them that on a certain day they intended to come and " flute " with them. Both parties then prepared for a feast, by laying in as large a stock of provisions as possible.

On the appointed day the challengers, who had prepared, in addition to the provisions which they carried with them, a large supply of various sized reed flutes, left their kraal in a kind of rude procession, leaving all of the men of the place behind, and started for the rendezvous whither the challenge had been sent, fluting as they went along. Had any of the men attempted to follow them it would have been resented as a gross breach of privilege, for it was the day of the women asserting the prerogative of unlimited freedom.

Their approach was heralded to their expectant hosts by the sound of their flutes, which could be heard in fine weather at a great distance. As they drew near their friends turned out to meet them, and gave them a joyful welcome. A feast was prepared, and when all were satisfied, they made ready for the friendly contest.

The women of the two kraals then drew up in two opposing lines, when the rival fluting and dancing commenced ; this was taken up alternately, first by the representatives of the one kraal and then by the other, though occasionally both joined together. This was sometimes continued for hours.

Feasting again followed, and the dance was renewed, the women ever and anon throwing themselves into a variety of positions intended to excite the feelings of the male spectators. This feasting and revelry was continued for three or four days, or until all their provisions were exhausted, during which time the lady visitors abandoned themselves to every species of licence, and had no cause for missing the absence of their husbands. They then returned to their own kraal in the same frolicsome manner as they had left it.

In a short time the women of the kraal they had visited returned the compliment, and came in the same kind of procession, bringing, in their turn, their flutes with them, when the dancings and flutings were repeated, the same feastings and orgies were reacted, and the men of the kraal were consoled for the departure of their wives on the former occasion.

The song which accompanied this dance has already been given. The Koranas had a dance which was identical with the one described, but as the Bushmen of the north practised it for generations before the Koranas made their appearance on the banks of the 'Nu 'Gariep, it is not improbable that the latter derived their knowledge of it from the older race.

The 'Kahoune was one in which none but men were allowed to join, and of these, only such as were distinguished for their manly qualities. Thus it was when old 'Ko-rin-'na heard his wife singing again the wild refrain which accompanied the dance of huntsmen, that the recollections of olden times rushed over him, and impelled him to array his head once more as he doubtless before had done in the days when he himself had joined the wild hunters of his tribe in dancing and singing the 'Tata-'ta-yeya, yeya of the 'Kahoune.

The accompaniment has already been given. The men danced in line, with their arrows filleted round their heads, which they, rolled about in a rollicking manner as they advanced, shaking their bows aloft at the same time, while their movements were regulated by a leader.

Unfortunately the writer was not able to discover the names of a considerable number of their other dances, nor the refrains by which they were accompanied. There was another dance of huntsmen, when as they danced alone they were tapping on their bowstrings with a small wand, and every alternate one had a large-sized Bushman bell attached to his shoulder.

Another might have been termed a Bushman country dance, where the men and women were in two opposite lines, waving their kerries frantically in the air, and loudly vociferating as they proceeded, while a conductor in the centre, but a little in advance of the two lines, led them.

Another might be called the chain-dance, in which a mixed company of men and women formed an open column four deep, with a considerable space between each file ; all the dancers standing with their arms extended holding a long wand upright between them, thus forming rows of arches, through which a couple (a man and woman) setting to each other, danced in and out, whilst a leader standing at the head of the column directed their movements.

In many of the dances the conductor who superintended and guided the movements of the performance wore the disguise of the 'Nadro, in some the dancers themselves were so decorated ; in others they were so dressed as to represent a particular animal, when the dance was called by its name ; such was the t'Gorlo'ka, the Man-nia, or Baboon dance, in which the performers imitated all the actions and droll grimaces of rival baboons, springing, gambolling, and running upon all foursy chattering and grimacing like a troop of excited simiadæN.

Another, and one which also appeared a favourite amongst them, was the Kloo-rou-o, or Frog-dance, in which they squatted, and leaped, and rolled about like a lot of inebriated batrachians. A third of this kind was the t’Oi, or Bee-dance, when the company transformed themselves into a swarm of bees, and performed their evolutions with a buzzing chorus.

Notes: It is quite possible that some of these dances may have had, at one time, a mythical signification attached to them, which would only be understood by the initiated. This idea is suggested by a myth which Mr. Joseph M.Orpen obtained from a Maluti Bushman named 'Qing (.'kign Bleek) who said Cagn (the 'Kaang of Arbousset and Callaway and kaggen of Bleek) sent Cogaz to cut sticks to make bows.

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When Cogaz came to the bush the baboons (cogn) caught him. They called all the other baboons to hear him, and they asked him who sent him there. He said his father sent him to cut sticks to make bows. So they said, " Your father thinks himself more clever than we are, and he wants those bows to kill us, so we'll kill you," and they killed Cogaz, and tied him up in the top of a tree, and they danced round the tree, singing (an intranscribable baboon song) with a chorus saying, " Cagn thinks he is clever."

Cagn was asleep when Cogaz was killed, but when he awoke he told Coti to give him his charms, and he put some on his nose, and said the baboons have hung Cogaz. So he went to where the baboons were, and when they saw him coming close by they changed their song so as to omit the words about Cagn, but a little baboon girl said, " Don't sing that way, sing the way you were singing before."

And Cagn said, " Sing as the little girl wishes," and they sang and danced away as before. And Cagn said, "That is the song I heard, that is what I wanted, go on dancing until I return ; " and he went and fetched a bag full of pegs, and went behind each of them as they were dancing and making a great dust, and he drove a peg into each one's back, and gave it a crack, and sent them off to the mountains to live on roots, beetles, and scorpions, as a punishment. Before that baboons were men, but since that they have tails, and their tails hang crooked. Then Cagn took Cogaz down, and gave him canna, and made him alive again.''

From the above it is quite possible that this dance may have been instituted in honour of some festival dedicated to 'Kaang or his son 'Qing informed Mr. J. Orpen that there were certain dances which only certain men were allowed to dance : men who had been initiated, and understood the meaning of them. Some of these animal dances may belong to this class.

On special occasions, they held a general masquerade, when each took the disguise or head-dress of some particular bird or animal, and upheld the character during the performance. This appears to have been considered one of their grand national dances, and was reserved for their high festivals ; it was one which even their greatest artists delighted to depict, and probably it had some hidden meaning known to the initiated.

They also had a very singular one, which might appropriately be named the dance of acrobats. In this, in hopping and jumping about in a ring, it appeared as if all their efforts were directed to place themselves in every possible position and contortion, the leader taking his place in the centre, and occasionally joining in the posture-making going on around him, while the dancers moved on in a circle writhing, twining, and twisting their bodies in whatever droll and uncommon attitude their fancy suggested; now balancing themselves on their hands and throwing their legs upwards until their heads were in the position of a clown's looking through a horse-collar at a circus, now standing on their heads, and again balancing and walking upon their hands with their legs thrown high in the air, in true acrobatic style.

The changes from one posture to another were rapid and continuous, and the entire circle was ever in ceaseless motion. The women, as it was among ancient dancers and tumblers, were the chief, if not the only, performers. The conductor was, however, generally one of the male sex.N

Notes: 1 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson in his Egyptians gives a copy of one of their paintings, where a group of women are performing a number of similar evolutions. The head-dress of the Bushwomen on these occasions was, however, the ears of a spring or a steen-bok.

Another very similar one might be termed the dance of the Chief, or the Wise Man of the Tribe. This was one of the licentious group of dances, but which, nevertheless, may have also had its hidden meaning, in which the women appear to have offered themselves up to sexual congress ; and which therefore may have had some reference to 'Kaang, who they believed was the originator or creator of things.

In this the women formed themselves into a circle similar to the preceding one, the chief took up his position in the centre, and frequently hopped and sprang round on all fours like some animal, the women in the meanwhile dancing and placing themselves in every possible lascivious position, until the great man in the centre pounced upon one of those who had most distinguished themselves and performed that in the sight of all which in more civilised communities is reserved for the strictest privacy, amid the applauding clatter of the excited dancers forming the enclosing circle. After this the chief again took up his original position, and the dance continued with the same repetitions until all engaged in it were wearied and exhausted.

The most famous dance, however, among the Bushmen was that called Mo'koma, or the dance of blood, a name which M. Arbousset informs us is derived from the same word Mo-koma which signifies blood from the nose, from circumstances which frequently arose during its performance. They believed that their ancestors derived their instructions with regard to this dance direct from 'Kaang himself, and that in times of famine, war, scarcity, or sickness, this dance, Mo'koma, was to be continued throughout the whole night, in his honour.

'Qing or 'King informed Mr. J. Orpen that Cagn gave them the song of this dance, and told them to dance it, and people would die from it, and he would give charms to raise them again. It is a circular dance of men and women following each other, and it is danced all night. Some fall down, some become as if mad and sick, blood runs from the noses of others whose charms are weak, and they eat charm medicine, in which there is burnt snake powder.

M. Arbousset, who saw the Bushmen dancing it, says, " The movements consisted of irregular jumps, as if, to use a native expression, one saw a herd of calves leaping. They gambolled together until all were fatigued and covered with perspiration. The thousand cries which they raised, and the exertions which they made were so violent, that it was not unusual to see some one sink to the ground exhausted and covered with blood, which poured from the nostrils, and it was on this account that the dance was called Mo'koma or the dance of blood.

When a man thus falls in the middle of a ball, the women gather round him and put two bits of reed across each other on his back. They carefully wipe away the perspiration with ostrich feathers, leaping backward and falling across his back. Soon the air revives him ; he rises, and this in general terminates the performance."

M. Arbousset states that the use of the two bits of reed appeared most obscure to him, but it is evident that they were a portion of the charms alluded to by 'Qing ; but why they should be put in the form of a cross is not so easily explained. The cross singly, or in groups of three, was one of the most ancient of the Bushman symbols. M. Arbousset, however, could obtain no further explanation of it than that they constantly had recourse to it in cases of extreme sickness, and that they say it exerts a salutary influence over a sick person.

He considered that it might be mixed up with something of a religious rite. That such was really the case, and that the mystery hidden in such symbols was only known to a select few called the initiated, is rendered almost a certainty from the statements of 'Qing, who informed Mr. J. Orpen that when a man was sick the Mo'koma was danced round him, and the " dancers put both hands under their armpits and press their hands upon him, and when he coughs the initiated put out their hands and receive what has injured him, secret things. The initiated who know secret things are 'Qogn'qe ; the sick man is hang'cai."

The women were the great upholders of these dances, and always prepared for them by putting on their gala costumes. It is said that some of the men ruined themselves by too frequent indulgence in some of these licentious performances, or as Qing expressed himself, there were people who were " spoilt" by the Mo'koma. It was believed that such transgressing individuals were carried off by 'Kaang to some mysterious retreat beneath the water, where they were transformed into beasts, and had constant chastisement administered to them as a punishment for their excesses.N

Notes: 'Qing stated to Mr. J. Orpen that " there were three great chiefs, Cagn, Cogaz, and 'Qwanctqulchaa, who had great power, but it was Cagn who gave orders through the other two." The cartoon that will now be described clearly sustains this statement.

The writer, whilst examining one of the sources of the Eland's river, in the Malutis, discovered a rock-shelter where the whole of this myth was most wonderfully and clearly depicted. It was in two groups, one a short distance removed from the other. In the uppermost a number of women of different ages were engaged in performing the Mo'koma, or this very dance of blood. The figures were full of life, and their actions plainly suggested the result which would naturally follow from an indulgence in such a questionable pastime.

Near at hand were three of the most demoniacal-looking satyrs that could be imagined, with the heads and horns of beasts, shaggy loins, and long tails — with thick legs and monstrous splay-feet. One of them had captured two unfortunate delinquent Bushmen, whom he was carrying away, the one on his back, the other by dragging him along the ground by a leather thong tied round the culprit's neck.

The other two demons are evidently rejoicing at the capture that had been made, and are hurrying to the assistance of their companion. The second representation, some feet removed from the upper one, depicts where the two sinners have been transformed into beasts, that is they have the heads of animals placed on their shoulders, instead of their own ; they are securely pinioned with a couple of kibis, or digging sticks, and 'Kaang has seized one of them in a most painful position, and is administering to him a sound thrashing with another heavy 'kibi or digging stick of the same kind, thus making " the strong hand " an instrument of punishment.

This discovery was an important one with regard to our present subject, for it unmistakably proves that a certain amount of religious belief was connected with some of their dances ; and that, in the painting here described, we are furnished with a positive representation of their fancied deities ; and moreover it clearly demonstrates, as was before suggested, that the 'Nadro and hunting disguises of their remote ancestors had become so identified with some great, but primitive hero of their race, upon whom they looked in process of time as not only the first man, but the originator of all things, and who they at length believed was not only superhuman, but that the very disguises which he wore were transformed into a living portion of himself, until their lively imaginations depicted him as a being endowed with enormous power, as denoted by the strength of his limbs and possessing not such a head as belonged to common humanity, but one similar to some great homed beast.

Hence it seems as if through the despised Bushman we obtain a knowledge of the true germ whence the more elaborate, yet fabulous and symbolic animal-headed deities of the more polished nations of antiquity were developed.

Some writers have suggested that a large number of Bushman paintings are merely, especially where the Bushmen are shown in their hunting disguises, the pictorial representations of some hidden myth.

This, however, after having carefully studied the subject for a long number of years during which period the present writer has examined the remains of their paintings in hundreds of caves, obtaining also at the same time the opinion of every trustworthy Bushman he encountered, he cannot believe ; nor does he consider that, with a very few exceptions, these paintings as a rule were ever intended, originally, to convey a mythological meaning, any more than those more finished productions found in the northern hemisphere, which represent the victorious career of some Egyptian king, or the sculptures that show those of Assyria in the act of hunting the lion or the wild bull. They are purely historical.

It is, however, not improbable that after the history of some of these paintings had been forgotten and the names of the heroes who were intended to be depicted had been lost, then it might have been, at least so we can imagine from what has been previously advanced, that some mythical description may have been occasionally connected with them ; or some Bushman of the present day, deeply learned in the folklore of his tribe, may upon examining them imagine that he can detect a similarity between some myth with which he is acquainted and the pictorial representation before him, and he forthwith may cleverly join the one with the other.

He may probably belong to a tribe rich in myths, and now looks for the first time upon a painting by an artist of a distant tribe, of which previously he had not the slightest knowledge. Clever as they undoubtedly are, his natural shrewdness enables him to patch the myth and the scene represented in the painting together.

The knowledge of myths, which are passed from mouth to mouth, and handed down by tradition, must naturally be far more widely spread than that of an individual painting, which can only be known to the inhabitants who once occupied the cave and those of the immediately surrounding country. Such would seem to be the probable connexion between the interesting myths communicated to Mr. Joseph Orpen by 'Qing and the Bushman paintings, or copies of Bushman paintings which were shown to him.

As a proof of this, a copy of the same painting was submitted to an old Bushman who had been born in a cave, where from his childhood he had been surrounded by both the ancient and recent paintings belonging to his tribe, for his examination. Without any hesitation, he explained it as representing two Bushmen hunters who had painted their bodies in their hunting disguises, chasing a jackal. This man was a matter-of-fact observer.

'Qing, who was inspired with all the learning of his race, described the same two men, adorned with the heads of rheboks, as mythological characters named Hagwe and Canate, and that the animal which they were catching was a snake ! " They are holding out charms to it," he said, " and catching it with a long riem. They are all under water, and those strokes are things growing under water. They are people spoilt by the Mo'koma dance, because their noses bleed." The old Bushman, as we have stated, gave a simple description of its real and literal historical meaning. Its elaboration and mythical interpretation given by 'Qing arose from the fact that the latter was deeply versed in the folklore of his people.

The writer has since then had opportunities of questioning a number of other old Bushmen upon the same subject, and they have all agreed in their explanations with the opinion of the ancient above given. From this we may therefore learn that in looking at any of these paintings, if we find that they represent scenes of actual Bushman life, and yet that a myth is attached to them, we must look behind and beyond the myth for their true history. The myth was the after-thought, and never the intention of the artist who painted it.

Still, however, it is admitted that in such a case such a representation may become a valuable adjunct in arousing in the minds of others, by a fancied, though it may be, as in the present instance, forced resemblance to some almost-forgotten myth, a vivid recollection of its existence, and thus prove the means of further illustrating the imaginative faculties and mental powers of the race.

Where such a matter-of-fact interpretation cannot be put upon it, and from the experience of the writer they are few in number, then in all probability it represents some ancient myth in a pure, simple, and unadulterated state ; and such is the one we have described, which was discovered on a flank of the Malutis, where 'Kaang is seen to be unquestionably inflicting punishment upon two unfortunate delinquents, who have outraged the Bushman ideas of prudence in their excessive indulgence in the licentious yet mystic dance of blood.

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MODE OF BURIAL OF THE BUSHMEN— HEAPS OF STONES— SOME OF THEIR BELIEFS


These subjects in Bushman ideas are closely associated the one with the other, thus the heaps of stones are connected with their burials, while their superstition forms the connecting link between these and some of their beliefs.

As a precaution against sickness the Bushmen carried their medicinal rootsN and charms strung on a cord of sinew, and worn as a necklace. Some of the initiated were more skilful in the use of these remedies than any one else, and for this reason were looked upon in the light of medicine-men or doctors. Such individuals generally belonged to the ruling family or its branches, and thus a kind of caste or rank was recognised, among whose members all the secret mysteries of the tribe were jealously preserved.

Notes: The Bushmen certainly are acquainted with a number of very valuable medicinal plants ; some of them are specifics in the cure of several diseases which have frequently baffled the skill of the most eminent medical practitioners ; and it is a matter of astonishment that no effort has been made to discover such important secrets. Thus they were able to effect certain cures in cases of snake-bite, tænia, dysentery, and calculus, besides the rapid removal of gonorrheal affections.

In cases of severe illness, when all their remedies and charms alike proved unsuccessful, they would sometimes seize the dying man and attempt to arouse by roughly shaking him, scolding and reproaching him with his evident intention of leaving them ; but when they saw that their reproaches and remonstrances were as unavailing as their charms and their medicines, they became visibly affected and gave way to their grief, making lamentations over him, and continued doing so for several days.

M. Arbousset, who availed himself of the frequent opportunities he possessed of studying the manners and customs of this people, states that as soon as a man had breathed his last, his relatives rolled him up in his kaross and carried him out, by removing the back of his hut, as it was considered unlucky to take out the dead through the regular door or opening used by the living. His body was placed temporarily in a round hole, he was then blessed and revered by his family, and looked upon as one of their tutelar guardian spirits. "

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The dead were first anointed with red powder mixed with melted fat, and then they were coarsely embalmed. The friends of the deceased attended the funeral, and laid the body on its side in an oblong pit, where all the friends and relatives assembled to make their lamentations."

His bow and staff were deposited in the grave by his side. His face was placed towards the rising sun, as they believed were they to put his face towards the west, it would make the sun longer in rising the next day. At last they threw into the pit the materials of the hut in which he died and burnt it over him, and the grave was then filled with earth to the level of the ground.

Arbousset says that the Bushman clans with which he was acquainted placed no heaps of stones or monument over the graves, as other native tribes do. It is certain, however, that the greater portion of the Bushmen did so, as well as surrounding the spot with a hedge.

"The funeral over," Arbousset continues, "all the inhabitants left the place for a year or two, during which time they never spoke of the deceased but with veneration and with tears." ..." These interments were never so precipitate as among the Kaffir or Bachoana tribes, where unfortunate people have been known to recover from their state of lethargy, and manage to work themselves out of their graves again," appearing once more among their horrified friends as unexpected visitors from another world.

The graves were dug with the 'kibi. It is most probable that the custom of placing stones over the graves of the dead amongst primitive tribes originated from the desire of protecting the bodies of their relatives from the ravages of hyenas and other ravenous beasts.

By degrees these heaps were looked upon as associated with the memory of the dead, and as their superstitious ideas became more and more developed, and the belief arose that the shades or spirits of the departed could be either propitiated or offended, it was at last looked upon as an imperative duty to avoid the evil consequences which might follow should it be neglected, for every passer-by to make some addition to the sacred heap, with the assurance that by so doing he secured prosperity to himself and his family. In course of time heaps of stones, the Gilgals of old, were raised, which had a certain phallic significance.

These were altogether unconnected with the burial of the dead, and are still found on the brows of many hills in different parts of South Africa, of which we shall have to speak when treating of the stronger races. Heaps of this description appear to have been instituted after the southern migration of the Bushmen, as they had no traditions concerning them ; therefore from our South African point of view the evidence seems strongly to favour the idea that the primitive heaps of stones were primarily intended merely as a protection to the bodies of those buried beneath them.

The Bushmen, however, had got beyond this stage, and considered that in order to propitiate the favour of their departed friends it was necessary to make an offering to the consecrated heap upon their graves whenever they passed.N Enormous lines of stones were noticed in some parts of the country by some of the old travellers, but these have evidently been the ruins of the stone fences which had been made by some of the ancient hunters, monuments of the numerous tribes which inhabited it at the time of their construction, as well as a testimony of the wonderful energy and industry possessed by a race which has been long deemed one of the lowest of the genus homo.

Notes: A writer of a letter to the Graham's Town Journal, February, 1865, in describing some of the stone heaps, states that two of them are to be found in the vicinity of the missionary institution of Hankey, on the Gamtoos river. " One of these ancient heaps," he continues, "stands a little above the junction of the Zuurbron and Vley Plaats road, in the Zaat Kloof, on the line of road from Hankey to the Zuurveld, via Zuurbron."

It consists of a vast heap of stones, few of which are larger than a man's fist, intermixed with fragments of boughs plucked from the surrounding bushes. The other is to be found in the neighbourhood of Hankey, in a narrow gorge of the Klein or Palmiet river. These he attributes incorrectly to Hottentots.

Sparrman in his travels met with heaps which evidently belonged to both classes. He writes : " Heaps of stones were found near the Great Fish river similar to those near Krakeel river. They were from three to four and four and a half feet high, and the bases of them measured six, eight, and ten feet in diameter. They likewise lay ten, twenty, fifty, two hundred paces, and even farther asunder, but constantly between two particular points of the compass, and consequently in right lines, and those always running parallel to each other."

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He " likewise found these heaps of stones in a considerable number in more open portions of the country," and knew from the account received from the colonists on this subject, that they extended in this manner several days journey from this spot in a northerly direction through uncultivated plains, into the SneeseN Vlakten where they were said to be met with in still greater numbers of parallel lines.

Notes: Cineeze, Cineese, or Chinese, from the appearance of the Bushmen living upon them.

Sparrman attempted to dig into one of these isolated heaps,N but after penetrating about two feet with great labour, he discovered nothing but what appeared to be " some rotten bits of trees and something that seemed to be a piece of bone quite mouldered away."

Notes: The use of these laborious works of the early Bushmen has already been explained, of which Sparrman was evidently ignorant.

From other travellers we obtain more definite information upon this interesting subject ; thus Borcherds found near the drift which he crossed in the upper portion of the 'Gariep, on the right bank, a grave of a Bushman captain or chief, which consisted of a large cairn of stones and branches of trees ; and every " Bushman on passing the pile was in the habit of adding a stone to the heap, as a mark of respect for the deceased."

Thompson says : " In the Hantam there is a narrow defile between two mountains, called Moordenaar's Poort (or the Murderer's Pass) on account of several colonists having been killed there by Bushmen. Near the same spot were six large piles of stones, or cairns, which had been raised, so his guide asserted, to commemorate a bloody conflict between two tribes of either. Hottentots or Bushmen, before Europeans intruded into the country."

From the foregoing evidence both with regard to their mode of burial and the veneration paid by some of the tribes to the dead, and the heaps of stones placed upon their graves and sacred to their memory, we are assured that the Bushmen had some vague belief in a future state of existence. This becomes a certainty when we inquire into some of their beliefs.

The custom of cutting off the first joint of the little finger was almost universal amongst the Bushman tribes.N

Notes: A similar custom was prevalent among the old Tambukis, but we shall find when we inquire into their history that there is every reason to believe they derived it from their intimacy with the Bushmen.

The operation was performed with a sharp stone, and they believed that by this act of self-mutilation they secured to themselves a long continued career of feasting after death. The 'Gariepean Bushmen have the following myth upon the subject :N one of them stated that not only his own tribe, but many others also, believed that at some undefined spot on the banks of the Gariep,N2 or Great river, there is a place called 'Too'ga, to which after death they all will go ; and that to ensure a safe journey thither they cut off the first joint of the little finger of the left, or right hand, one tribe adopting the one fashion, another the other.

This they consider is a guarantee that they will be able to arrive there without difficulty, and that upon their arrival they will be feasted with locusts and honey, whilst those who have neglected this rite will have to travel there upon their heads, beset the entire distance with all kinds of imaginary obstacles and difficulties ; and even after all their labour on arriving at the desired destination they will have nothing given to them but flies to live upon.

Notes 1: ' Obtained from an old Bushman near Fraserburg by Mr. Turner, Junior, of Draai Hoek, Vaal River.

Notes 2: ' Some of the Bushmen believe there is a deep mystery hanging over that portion of the river called the Falls.

Another belief of these Bushmen was somewhat similar to that of 'Qing of the Maluti tribes. They imagined that in the beginning of time all the animals, as well as the Bushmen themselves, were endowed with the attributes of men and the faculty of speech, and that at that time there existed a vicious and quarrelsome being named 'Hoc-'hi'gan, who was always quarrelling with every animal he came near, and trying on that account to injure it.

He at length disappeared, but they state that none of their race was ever able to discover what became of him, nor is there any tradition to tell when or where he went. But upon his disappearance he committed, as a parting gift, a deed of vengeance ; for immediately afterwards all the animals forsook the abodes of men, ,and were changed into their present condition, while the Bushmen alone retained the faculties of human beings and the power of speech.

When these Bushmen were asked how they knew this, they replied, "It is what they had learnt from their fathers, and it is what their fathers' great-great-grandfathers had told them."

Some of the tribes living in the regions around the lower portion of the Gariep have another version of a primitive state of friendship between Bushmen and the lower animals, and their subsequent dispersion.N According to this myth their remote forefathers came out of a hole in the ground, at the roots of an enormous tree, which covered a wide extent of country.

Immediately afterwards all kinds of animals came swarming out after them, some kinds by twos and threes and fours ; others in great herds and flocks ; and they crushed, and jostled, and pushed each other in their hurry, as if they could not get out fast enough ; and they ever came out swarming thicker and thicker, and at last they came flocking out of the branches as well as the roots. But when the sun went down, fresh ones ceased making their appearance. The animals were endowed with the gift of speech, and remained quietly located under and around the big tree.

Notes: Communicated to the writer by Mr. William Coates Palgrave, Special Commissioner to the Tribes on the West Coast, and obtained by him many years ago, in one of his first visits to that part of the country.

As the night came on, the men, who were still sitting at the foot of the tree, were told that during that night, until the sun rose again, they must not make a fire. Thus they remained for many hours, with all the animals sleeping peacefully around them. And the night grew not only very dark, but cold, and the cold went on increasing until it became bitterly cold, and then cold almost beyond endurance ; and the men at last, not being able to withstand the extreme severity any longer, in spite of the warning that had been given to them, attempted, and at last succeeded in making a fire.

As soon as the flames began to shoot up, the startled animals sprang to their feet in terror, and rushed off panic-stricken to the mountains and the plains, losing in their fright all powers of speech, and fleeing ever afterwards from the presence of man. Only a very few animals remained with the fire-makers, and these the men domesticated and kept about them for their service ; but the great family of animals was broken up, and could never again be reunited.

Dr. Bleek statesN that among the Western Bushmen the most prominent object in their mythological tales is 'Kaggen, whose mundane representative is the Mantis, and that this Mantis ('Cagn — ‘Kaggen), according to the myths of his Bushmen informants, was very far from being represented as a beneficent being, but on the contrary is a fellow full of tricks, getting into scrapes, and even doing purely mischievous things, so that in fact it was no wonder that his name has sometimes been translated by that of the devil.

'Kaggen's wife's name was 'Hunntu or 'Hunu, the hyrax ; and he had an adopted daughter Xo, the porcupine, who married ‘Kwammanga, by whom 'Xo had a son called Ni, the ichneumon, who was the constant adviser and admonisher of his grandfather ‘Kaggen, the mantis.

Notes: Remarks by Dr. Bleek on a " Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen," by J. M. Orpen.

The Bushmen of the east — that is, of the conquered territory, Orange Free State, Basutuland, and the Malutis — declare that there were at one time a number of animals living in the country in the days of their forefathers, which are now extinct and nowhere to be found in Southern Africa. Some of these are described as great monstrous brutes, exceeding the elephant or hippopotamus in bulk, others enormous serpents, such as are neither seen nor heard of in these degenerate days.

Upon this point 'Kou'ke stated, upon looking at the copy of a picture of a great black reptile of this description, taken from the cave of the Great Black Serpent and the Elephant, in Rockwood glen. Orange River, that this was an enormous brute which was found in the very early days in the country, and that they were so large and powerful that they would attack and crush to death a full grown hartebeest. She described it as more than twenty, or nearly thirty feet in length.

The horned serpent of the Brakfontein cave, Koesberg, she pronounced to be the 'Koo-be-eng, a monstrous creature of equal size with the former, that lived in the water, and sometimes lurked near its edge in the reeds.

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The great animal which was the distinctive symbol of Klein Aasvogel Kop cave, Lower Caledon, a second representation of which was found in a rock-shelter many miles distant, at Miaputte, on the banks of the 'Nu-Gariep or Upper Orange, near where the river disengages itself from the gorges of the Malutis, she called the ' Kou-teign- Koo-rou, which she explained as meaning ' the Master of the Water.' This she stated was an animal of enormous size, that lived in the country in ancient times. The Bushmen of the olden days used to hunt them ; but they have long, long ago disappeared.

It was far larger and more formidable than the hippopotamus, and lived always in or near the great waters and rivers, amongst swamps and reeds. The Bushmen captured it by making a very strong enclosure with reeds and poles, so strongly interwoven and bound together that it could not break through. This fence was also masked with reeds. When they succeeded in getting one of these brutes within the toils, as soon as the monster found he was entrapped his fury appeared to know no bounds ; he made desperate attempts to free himself, and lashed the water about, in the impotence of his rage, until he raised such clouds of spray around him that the rainbow appeared upon them, as if crowning him. Hence his name, and this circumstance the Bushman artists attempted to depict in their paintings.

But even after thus imprisoning him, it frequently happened that three or four Bushmen would be sacrificed to his uncontrollable fierceness before he was finally conquered and killed. He generally seized them by the middle of the back, crushed them with a single crunch of his teeth, and then pounded them to a shapeless mass beneath his feet. These and others she declared were animals that once lived in the land in the days of her father's fathers, but they had long since disappeared.

With regard to their religious beliefs, M. Arbousset informs us that the Bushmen of the mountains believed in an unknown being they called 'Kaang, or the chief, or great chief. He is to be addressed in times of famine, or before going to war, and when performing the dance of the Mo'koma. All the beasts of the field have their marks which he has given them, for example this eland obtained from him only a stump of a tail, that a folded ear, this other a pierced ear. 'Kaang causes to live and causes to die ; he gives or refuses rain, when there is a deficiency of game they say, 'Kaang 'ta-kago go si- ho 'kaa 'kuaing," 'Kaang refuses them beasts.

Dr. Bleek, as we have seen, identifies 'Kaggen ('Kaang) with the Mantis. These Bushmen appear to apply the same word to the caddisworm as to the mantis, to which the name of N'go vide !Xo of Dr. Bleek) is also given. The N'go, or caddisworm, which is frequently met with at certain seasons in some parts of the Free State, constructs a case for itself with pieces of straw, and it was probably its peculiar appearance, as well as that of the mantis, which first attracted the superstitious attention of the Bushmen towards these remarkable insects, which were subsequently held in high veneration by some of them.

The Bachoana consider the N'go to be very poisonous, and are afraid of them should they meet them among the grass when the cattle are grazing. The Bushmen of the East addressed them as an outward representation of 'Kaang.

When asked by M. Arbousset whether they did not pray to their deceased fathers, like other tribes of the land, the Bushman addressed answered, No ! to which he added that his father had taught him otherwise, and had solemnly said before dying, " My son, when thou goest to the chase, seek with care for the N'go, and ask food from him for thyself and children. Mark after thy prayer if he moves his head, describing an elbow, which signifies that he has heard thee graciously, and that very evening thou wilt bring to thy mouth a portion of game, which thou shalt hold fast between thy teeth, and shalt cut it with thy knife, and with thine arm bent describing an elbow like our N'go."

The words of the petition to be offered to this emblem of 'Kaang were :

" 'Kaang 'ta ha a ntanga e ?

'Kaang is it that thou dost not like me ?

'Kaang 'ta 'gnu a 'kua a s'e'ge.

'Kaang lead me to a male gnu.

I’tangaN i 'kogu 'koba hu ;

I like much to have my belly filled ;

I'konte, i'kage, itanga 'kobu koba hu ;

My oldest son, my oldest daughter, like much to have their bellies filled ;

'Kaang 'ta, 'gnu a 'kua a s'e'gi.

'Kaang bring me a male gnu under my shafts."

—'Qing.

Notes: From this several Kaffir words appear to be introduced into the old Seroa language, thus itanga (Bushman) I love ; — uku tanda, — itanda (Kaffir).

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'Qing, when questioned by Mr. J. Orpen, with regard to 'Kaang, replied, " Cagn made all things, and we pray to him."

Being asked whether he was good or malicious, he answered, “At first he was very good and nice, but he got spoilt through fighting so many things."

When questioned as to the manner in which Bushmen prayed to him, he responded in a low imploring tone " O Cagn ! O Cagn ! are we not your children ? Do you not see our hunger ? Give us food ! " and he gives us both our hands full." When an inquiry was made whether he could tell where 'Kaang was, he said, "We don't know, but the elands do. Have you not hunted and heard his cry, when the elands suddenly started and ran to his call ? Where he is, elands are in droves like cattle." Having stated that 'Kaang was the first being, and that his wife's name was Coti, he was asked where Coti came from, when he replied, " I don't know, perhaps from those who brought the sun ; but," he added, " you are now asking secrets that are not spoken of," secrets with which he asserted he was not acquainted, and which were only known to the initiated men of that particular dance.

'Kwaha stated to Mr. Charles Sirr OrpenN that the Bushman name for the Superior Being was T'koo — vide 'Tikoe and T'koe, the Bushman's " strong hand," or round stone of the 'Kibi or digging stick — and that his ('Kwaha's) father used to say that when they killed game they were not to waste the flesh, or T'koo might not favour them again by giving them any more. They considered T'koo was good for all. There was also a wicked spirit T'ang (? 'Kaang), but although they called T'koo the father, they did not like to speak of T'ang.

Notes: 'Kwaha had been staying for a long time at the Bethulie Mission Station, under missionary instruction.

We have now in our study of the Bushmen attempted to obtain some insight, imperfect however as it must necessarily be, of the probable lines along which the tribes first penetrated into South Africa.

We have discovered that they were divided into two great branches, each of which possessed artistic talents of a distinct order ; and that they had been so long separated that, although they still retained certain myths which seemed to indicate from their great similitude a common origin, the language of each of the two branches had, in the interim, become so modified that when some of the advanced clans again came in contact, they were not able to understand one another, or as 'Kwaha, who belonged to the painter tribes, said, he could not understand those of the 'Gumaap or 'Gij-Gariep, who were of the sculptor branch, as " their language was too double," that is, in all probability, it had retained a greater number of primitive clicks, and therefore more of its primitive character than the other. The painter tribes came earlier in contact with the races that followed upon the Bushman's trail.

We have learnt also something of their government, their character and domestic habits, their means of subsistence, their weapons and modes of hunting. We have passed under view what is known of their marriage rites, their games, music and musical instruments, and we have not only made the interesting discovery that their artistic talents far surpassed those of all other South African races, but that they had made greater advances in primitive music than any of the intruding tribes ; they had invented a greater variety of musical instruments, and there was a greater compass and variation in the refrains which accompanied their dances.

We have, however, nothing in the Bushman language, as far as our own inquiries have carried us, which can compete with the energetic compositions found in some of the Kaffir or Basutu war-songs.N

Notes: The only fragment of a Bushman poem which has been preserved belonging to the eastern tribes is that given by M. Arbousset (Voyage d'Exploration, p. 249), and by a strange freak it is in Sesuto, and not Seroa. But as it is unique as a specimen, we repeat it here :

" Raselepe u tlula yuale-ka puri
Raselepe (i.e. the father of Selepe) bounded like a kid ;
U tlula yuale-ka pokoa "
He bounded like the kid of a goat."

The rest is lost.

When we come to study the nature of some of their dances, their funeral rites, and some of their leading myths, we find that they possessed a traditionary belief that at some remote period the connexion between man and the lower animals was much closer and far more intimate than at present, that they paid a certain amount of homage to some mysterious and powerful being, who was by turns generous or vindictive, that they reverenced the memory of their departed friends and sought to propitiate their manes by adding to the sacred heaps which covered their graves, that they believed in a future state of existence wherein Bushmen would be punished or rewarded according as they performed or neglected certain rites while upon earth, and that they preserved among their tribes certain mysteries and mystic rites which were revealed to none but a privileged class called the initiated, who alone were allowed to join in certain dances whose hidden meaning was jealously withheld from those who were uninitiated, or the profane vulgar among them.

Unfortunately whole tribes have been annihilated by the stronger races which seized their hunting grounds, and the wise men of their race perished with them, thus the knowledge and the key of many of these mysteries, which could they have been rescued from oblivion might have explained to us the first stages of the development of more elaborate systems of religious mysticism, have perished also ; and we are only able to attempt to grope our way in a very unsatisfactory manner through the gloom, the fragmentary ruins, and the few scattered and obscure traditions that have survived the desolation of past ages.

Having thus far endeavoured to obtain a knowledge of the Bushman race, taken in its entirety, we will now strive to gather as much of the history as may have been preserved of the various groups of tribes which once inhabited different portions of the country.


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THE VARIOUS GROUPS OF BUSHMAN TRIBES



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In reviewing the various groups of tribes, we will commence with those to the north, and pass from them to the western portion of the country, following up the inquiry through the Karoo and Middle Veld, thence to Griqualand, the Southern Bachoana territory, the valleys of the Kolong and the Vaal, the present Free State, the 'Nu-Gariep, Basutuland, and the east ; and finally noticing those of the Zuurveld, concluding with as much as is known of the life of the last great Bushman captain who ruled over that portion of their ancient territory before the Kaffir tribes attempted to obtain possession of it.

To avoid repetition as much as possible, we will in every case where the Bushman history is intermixed with that of the intruding races, defer its consideration until we treat more particularly of the tribes with which they came in contact.

In pursuance of this plan we will begin with

The Bushmen of Damaraland.

These tribes or clans were visited by the traveller Chapman several times. In 1861 he was accompanied by Baines ; and from them we are able to glean a considerable amount of information. Some of these people joined Messrs. Chapman and Baines' hunting party and were glad to perform small services for a few charges of powder and ball. They showed no timidity, nor in fact any distrust or want of confidence.

Living, as they did, between the Bachoana tribes and the Hottentots, and so far distant as to be subservient to neither, they had more independence of character than their less fortunate countrymen. Occasionally, however, the Namaqua Hottentots penetrated as far as this portion of their territory on hunting expeditions, and what with scouring the country by day and watching the water at night, they destroyed such immense numbers of game that they almost exterminated the animals for miles around them.

Mr. Baines in his description of them added that he had not a little pleasure in being able to state that the behaviour of the Bushmen who visited them was civil and respectful, and they were not annoyed by the constant attempts at theft so common whilst they were travelling through a country occupied by other native tribes.

Some of the women were particularly diminutive, being a very few inches above four feet in height. Their real colour was a light yellowish brown, but they were generally nearly black with accumulated dirt. The general stature of the men seemed to be below five feet, but some of them were tolerably well made, and in good condition.

The only one of the first party they met with who exceeded that height was a stout fellow, with well-developed muscles, the son of the old chief. At another place, however, some Bushmen were met with who were nearly five feet five or six inches in height. This variation in height was in all probability owing to some intermixture between these particular Bushman families and some of the Namaqua hunters who occasionally penetrated into their country, in the same manner as we shall find that half-castes of a similar description, more or less numerous according to the number of the intruders, sprang up in many portions of the Bushman territory.

It seems an established fact that wherever we find such a marked deviation from the pure Bushman type, the modification can always be traced to the intercourse alluded to.

Baines noticed that one of these Damara Bushmen had a tinge of red in his cheeks, while a number of white feathers, cut short and stuck in his hair like curl-papers, gave him almost an effeminate appearance. One of them had the front of a secretary bird's head fastened in his crisp locks, with the beak projecting over his forehead ; and another wore the spoils of a crow in the same manner. In the general contour of their bodies they were similar to all other Bushmen. " The peculiar line of beauty formed by the protuberance behind, and the necessity of throwing back the shoulders to support the stomach, unnaturally distended by quantities of roots, melons, and other non-nutritious food, has been often remarked."

" In some the hair was shaved round the temples, ears, and back of the head, what remained on the scalp being felted with red clay and grease into a thick mat, to which ornaments of various kinds, such as beads and bits of ostrich eggshell of the size of shirt buttons, were attached behind and before."

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" A bit of sinew from the backbone of a beast formed a necklace, and small bands of giraffe's or elephant's hair were tied about their limbs, the tail of the former serving at once as a sceptre and a fly-brusher to the old headman." Some of them had rather longer hair than the Bushmen of the Cape Colony, a small portion of which was drawn out into cords which formed a fringe or curtain three inches long behind.

A belt from three to six or seven inches in width, which was worn by some of the young women, consisted of small circular pieces of ostrich eggshell bored in the centre, strung like buttons with their flat sides together, the cords were then laid side by side until they formed a belt of the required width ; and to support them in its proper shape, stiff pieces of leather were stitched behind like whalebone in a corset.

In making one of these an immense amount of time and labour must have been expended, as the shell, which is naturally very hard, had first to be boiled and softened in cold water, then cut into small pieces through which a hole was pierced with a little flint or agate drill, then rubbed into small rings like beads and polished, which were afterwards threaded in the manner described.

No other race except that of the Bushmen had either the skill or the patience to manufacture these beads, which is certainly a mark of their indomitable industry and perseverance when any occasion called them forth. After the stronger races came in contact with the Bushman bead-makers, they used to purchase these pierced discs of eggshell from the latter for small pieces of iron.

Besides these bead-belts the other portion of the Damara Bushwomen's dress consisted of a fringed apron in front arid a small piece of soft skin behind. It was remarked that they " were much cleaner in their food than the Damara or Bachoana, the facility of obtaining fresh meat freeing them from the necessity of eating everything that came to hand." Those seen by these travellers not being smeared with grease, except in " their matted hair, were far less unpleasant to sit near than the Damara."

The arrows were carried in neat quivers of bark served round with sinew, the whole with the bow being carried in a buck-skin, the neck of which was bound tightly round the quiver, while the legs served as belts to sling it round their shoulders. Baines states that there was a " manly bearing about these fellows which he could not help but admire." Besides their bow and quiver, the Bushmen carried in their velzak their fire-sticks, sucking-reed for drinking water, sinew for thread, bone-awls, and a number of other implements.

In 1861 these Bushmen not only headed their arrows with bone, but also with iron.N The latter, however, was only a recent innovation, as the fact has already been pointed out that Mr. Palgrave found at the time of his first visit quartz and agate chips were used by the northern tribes for this purpose.

Notes: We have already shown that the Bushmen obtained such iron as they used by barter, as they never appear to have possessed the knowledge of smelting it from the ore and working it themselves.

To preserve the points from injury, the bone heads were reversed while carrying them in the quiver, that is, " the sharp envenomed point was inserted into the end of the reed forming the shaft," and replaced in its proper position immediately before being used. Thus when a beast was hit, the reed shaft fell off, like that of a harpoon, leaving the poisoned head fast in the victim.

The iron head on the other hand, " with a sharp chisel edge a quarter of an inch broad, was carefully wrapped up by itself in bark or sinew, and was said to be specially reserved for the giraffe." The bow was strung with neatly twisted sinew, looped at one end and rolled round it at the other in such a manner that by merely turning it in the hand, as if it were the thread of a screw, it could be tightened or relaxed at pleasure. The bow was three quarters of an inch thick, and little, if at all, more than three feet long. It looked more like a plaything than a formidable weapon, but it required, nevertheless, a stronger pull than those of the Damara to bend it.

In obtaining fire two sticks of moderately hard wood were chosen, in one a little thicker than a pencil a small notch was made, and into this the point of another somewhat harder and thinner was inserted. This was made to revolve rapidly between the palms of the hands, until sufficient heat was gained to ignite a small tuft of carefully selected dry grass.N When one failed to produce fire in this manner, another sat opposite, and as the hands of the first came to the bottom of the stick the second caught it above and kept up the motion until the first one had raised his hand again.

Notes: Mr. Palgrave informed the writer that during his first journeys along the west coast and the west interior, the sight of fire suddenly bursting from the end of a lucifer match created the greatest astonishment, and the possession of two or three of them they looked upon as an invaluable treasure.

On one occasion, being encamped near the kraal of a chief, he thought that he would amuse and surprise them by firing off a rocket in the evening. He did so, and immediately there was a hubbub, consternation, and panic among the terrified inhabitants, succeeded in a few moments by a death-like stillness. In the morning he found the place abandoned, every soul, man, woman, and child, had fled, leaving all their worldly gear behind them.

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For three days no trace of them could be discovered, when a few stragglers were seen, and the retreat of the rest found out ; but even then it was with difficulty they could be persuaded to return, and not before Mr. Palgrave had given a promise to the chief that he would not again attempt to knock any more stars out of the heaven as long as he was in the country.

It appears that the Bushmen had a distinguishing appellation for every pit and spring of water. This was noticed to be especially the case in the Kalahari region : thus the one named " Stink Fontein " by Anderson was called 'Thounce by the Bushmen, and by the Bachoana Letje-piri, both signifying " the Fountain of the Hyena." It is to be regretted that so many travellers attach names of their own to a multitude of localities, instead of ascertaining wherever practicable the one by which it is designated by the natives, as their modem nomenclature cannot possibly assist those who may follow their footsteps, the natives being ignorant of the new titles thus given to them by the foreign visitors.

Chapman found the Bushmen of this part of the country extending into Ovambo-Land, and Bushmen alone occupied the intervening country to Lake Ngami.

The Bushmen of the Ngami Region.

The country to the north of the Kalahari, and between Damaraland and Ngami, was a region full of pans and plains, very similar to those which form the great central portion of the old lacustrine formation in part of Griqualand West and the Cape Colony, and to which in the latter their brethren gave the general name of Karoo, a designation which by a coincidence the northern Bushmen have also given to the country which they inhabit. These people, as was probably at one time the case in the lower country, have given special names to all the great pans, three of which are 'Goo-i-naw, Sa-ba-'tho, and 'Karoo (Dry).

Mr. Baines found Bushmen as far as he travelled to the north-west of the lake, they were known by the name of Ma-'kow-'kow to the lake people who live to the north-west of the Bataoana, or Batauana, the Men of the young Lions. Most of them are armed with the large assagai, or rather spear, as it is not intended for throwing, as well as the bow and arrow. The former appear to be used principally in elephant hunting. Large weapons of this character were manufactured for this express purpose, and called elephant spears by the Bamangwato and Mashuna tribes, who are considered the great blacksmiths of the interior.

Those, however, possessed by these Bushmen were not of the same gigantic dimensions as some of the others belonging to the tribes alluded to, having a blade of only some eight inches in length and two in breadth, with a strong shaft of five or six feet. They had also kerries, or knobbed sticks, of hard black wood like the Ovambo.

When they had a desire to show that they were friendly, many of them would lay down their weapons and sandals a long way off before approaching those they were visiting. A similar custom was observed among the painter-tribes, and is found depicted in some of their paintings representing friendly interviews. They carried sticks for producing fire. Their cookery was simple, yet not without method. Their favourite plan was to dig a hole with a sharp stick under the fire, and in this to cover up the food with hot ashes.

Thus one of them placed "several good-sized prickly melons like ostrich eggs in a nest, and though they are generally bitter before they are cooked, yet after it they came out very juicy and agreeable." Another method was to roast, or rather broil, the meat on a stick, which acted as a temporary spit.

These Bushmen could work very tastefully with beads, and wore their medicines and roots as necklaces round their necks. One of them had a spiral tuft made of the ends of black ostrich feathers with short pieces of the stems tied together, the filaments radiating from them so as to form a perfect globe of jetty hue, which he wore as an ornament on his head. Their colour was a light sienna brown, very different from the sallow dry-leaf colour of the Bushmen of the Cape Colony.

All the large game pits near the lake were exclusively the work of the Makobas and Bushmen, as it is in some parts of the Kalahari. Their spade was the national digging-stick of the Bushmen. The water at which any chief or headman of these Bushmen drank was soon known by his name, and his successor in the post, as a matter of convenience, continued to bear it.

“In this manner, perhaps," says Mr. Baines, " a series of stations along the pools in a river will have separate names, and thus a European arriving at one of them, if not aware of the custom, applies to the stream the name given to him where he strikes it ; another in like manner applies, as a general name, the word he hears at the next post ; and in this manner contradictory and confused statements are made upon the maps, and the new comer who uses these in conversation to the natives will be guided not where he wants to go, but to the spot where the word he happens to use is properly applicable."

The watering-place called Kobis and Koobie by Chapman and Baines was named after a Bushman formerly living there, and his son afterwards bore the same name. Some of the Bushmen were in a state of vassalage to the neighbouring Bachoana tribes, and were supposed to form a sort of outposts around the territories of the latter, to give the alarm in case of any marauders making their appearance in the direction in which they were stationed.

Leshulatibi, the chief of Lake Ngami, claimed a kind of sovereignty over some of the clans living nearest to the country in which he resided, and although, as we have seen, many of these northern Bushmen were living in a state of isolation and perfect independence, those living on the borders of this territory, and who were thus brought into contact with stronger races, were treated by the latter with the same merciless barbarity as elsewhere.

The chief we have just mentioned not only asserted a kind of sovereignty over them, but demanded of them as a species of tribute the tusks of all the elephants which they killed in hunting ; those near his great place were held in a state of abject servitude, and subjected to the greatest cruelty.

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On one occasion, two horses having been suffocated in a quagmire, he ordered the two Bushmen who had charge of them to be bound to them and thrust back again into the morass, with an injunction not to lose the horses again.

Again, in 1854, when this chief was attacked by Sekeletu, the son of Sebitoane, and the last of the Makololo chiefs, the Bushmen on this side thought it was a good chance to sweep off a lot of his cattle. His people could neither pursue, nor dare engage these " black serpents " of the desert, so after a while he dropped a hint that he supposed they thought he was dead and the cattle without a master, that they were hungry, and that now the affair was forgotten.

He then sent a man with tobacco to buy skins of them, and having by a long course of deceitful kindness lulled their suspicions, he proclaimed a grand battue. Of course the quarry was the Bushmen themselves, who were surprised, disarmed, and brought before him where he was sitting on his veld-stool.

He superintended the deliberate cutting of their throats, embittering their last moments by every taunt and sarcasm his imagination could supply. One of the actors in this bloody drama was afterwards in Chapman's service, and " related with great gusto the part he had sustained in it."

Baines states that some of these Bushmen in the immediate vicinity of the Lake were fine fellows, six feet high. Livingstone also visited these people, and tells us that he found many Bush families living at a place far to the north called Matlomaganyana or the Links, a chain of never-failing springs, who unlike those of the plains of the Kalahari, who are generally of short stature and light yellow colour, were tall strapping fellows of dark complexion.

Heat alone does not produce blackness, but heat with moisture, says the doctor, " seems to insure the deepest hue." Baines, however, considered they were half-castes, like the Bastaard Hottentots of the Colony, while Moffat says that the Bushmen who are " the most northerly, exist among the inhabited regions, where they remain perfectly distinct, and what is very remarkable, do not become darker in their complexion, as is the case with all the other tribes that inhabit the torrid zone."

The explanation of this apparent divergence is doubtless to be traced, as in other well-authenticated cases, to an admixture of foreign blood, rather than to mere variations of climatical conditions upon such nomads as some of the branches of this old hunter race, especially as we find such an admixture taking place upon other border lines, where other Bushman tribes have been thrown in contact with the stronger races that were being impelled upon them.

In Livingstone's second visit we obtain some further particulars about this half-caste tribe. He met them at Rapesh, under a captain named Haroye. " He and some others were at least six feet high, and of a darker complexion than the Bushmen of the south. They frequented the Zouga, and had always plenty of food and water. They were a merry laughing set."

From some of their observances they appeared to regard the dead as still in another state of living, for they requested one whom they were burying " not to be offended, even though they wished to remain a little longer in the world." These Bushmen killed many elephants, which they hunted by night when the moon was full, for the sake of the coolness. They chose the moment succeeding a charge, when the animal was out of breath, to run in and give him a stab with their long-bladed spears.

The Bushmen of Ngami reported that others of their race existed much farther to the north. Some of these men joined Mr. Baines' expedition, and one of his attendants, " though he knew one dialect of the Bushman language, could not understand theirs. At length a Damara was found who could carry on some sort of conversation with them, when they stated " that their chief lived very far to the north and hunted elephants with dogs near a very great water, the distance of which seemed to increase every time they were asked about it."

We have already seen that the Bushmen of the north apply the same appellation to a portion of the country in which they live as do those of the Middle Veld of the Cape Colony, viz. Karoo. Livingstone met with another instance among those in the far interior where a name was used which was identical with one employed by the tribes of the south. The spot alluded to was called 'Kama-kama, or Pools, Pools, that is, 'a chain of pools,' while we find Kisi 'kama on the Vaal, near 'Gong-'Gong,N ' 'Keis or Khais-kama in British Kaffraria, ' Kragga-' kama near Port Elizabeth, ' Ziet-zei-kama on the border of the district of George, and a number of others.

Now as it is certain that no Hottentot tribes ever lived in the country where the Bushman 'Kama-' kama is found, the name could not have been derived from them, but must have been of pure Bushman origin. We have therefore reason to conclude that Kama was originally a Bushman, and not a Hottentot word ; and that therefore the names given above, belonging to these widely separated localities, were of Bushman nomenclature also.

Notes: Gong-Gong is the Bushman name for a waterfall, over which all the waters of the Vaal rush ; and is explained by them to imitate its noise Gong-Gong, Gong-Gong, Gong-Gong.

This similarity of words used by distant tribes that have been cut off and isolated for unknown generations from each other, is another link in the chain of corroborative evidence of the southern migration of the old hunter-race.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari.

The Kalahari extends from the Orange river, 29° south latitude, to near Lake Ngami in the north, and from 24° east longitude to near the west coast. It is intersected by beds of ancient rivers, yet it contains no running waters, and very little in wells. Most of the latter are in the ancient river-beds, but the water never rises now to the surface. The ancient Mokolo, found towards the north of this region, must have been joined by rivers lower down, as it becomes broad and expands into a large bed, of which the present Lake Ngami forms but a very small part.

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Large salt pans are also met with in this portion, one of which, visited by Dr. Livingstone, was fifteen miles broad and one hundred long ; in another there was a cake of salt and lime, an inch and a half thick. Some of the pans were covered with shells identical with those found in Lake Ngami and the Zouga. This traveller therefore considered it probable that the salt was the leavings of slightly brackish lakes of antiquity, large portions of which must have been dried out in the general desiccation.

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The Kalahari proper is covered with grass and creeping plants, and in some parts patches of bushes and even trees. It is remarkably flat, and prodigious herds of antelopes wander over its surface. Here the Bushmen live from choice, and the Bakalahari from compulsion. ' " The Bushmen," writes Livingstone, "are distinct in language, race, habits, and appearance, and are the real nomads of the country. They never cultivate the soil, or rear animals save wretched dogs. They are intimately acquainted with the habits of the game, and chiefly subsist on their flesh eked out by the roots, and beans, and fruits of the desert. Those who inhabit the hot sandy plains have generally thin wiry forms, and are capable of great exertion and severe privations. Many are of low stature, although not dwarfish."

" That they are," continues the doctor, " to some extent like baboons is true, just as these are in some points frightfully human.”

The inhabitants of the Kalahari frequently " hide their supplies of water, by filling the pits with sand." In the olden times the Bushmen who inhabited those portions of the country now comprised in the Cape Colony used to do the same, merely leaving a small reed pipe through which they sucked up their supplies. One reason given by the Colonial Bushmen for this custom of covering up the springs was that there might be fewer places for the game to drink, and thus they were able to watch the more easily the remaining drinking places when hunting. Ostrich eggshells furnished them with water-bottles, in which to carry the fluid to the place of their haunt.

At Kanne, beyond Letloche, Livingstone found one of these " sucking-places," around which were congregated great numbers of Bushwomen with their eggshells and reeds. At one of the stations in the desert, named Boatlanama, were deep wells, in the neighbourhood of which was an abundance of pallahs, springboks, guinea-fowl, and small monkeys.

The game which frequented these wilds in large numbers were elands, duikers, steenboks, gemsboks, and porcupines, all able to exist without water for a long time, living on bulbs and tubers containing moisture. The koodoo, springbok, and ostrich can live where there is moisture in the vegetation on which they feed. The rhinoceros, buffalo, gnu, giraffe, zebra, and pallah are never seen except in the vicinity of water. There were likewise two species of jackals, the dark and the golden, a small ocelot, the lynx, the wild-cat, and others, besides lions, leopards, panthers, and hyenas.

The desert was a refuge for many a tribe when their lands were overrun by the ferocious Matabili.

The natives of the Kalahari, the Bushmen and Bakalahari, eat some of the snakes which are found in their country, such as the python. The largest of these are from fifteen to twenty feet in length. They live on small animals, chiefly the rodentia, although occasionally steenboks or pallahs fall victims. They are harmless to man. One was shot by Dr. Livingstone about eleven feet ten inches long and as thick as a man's leg. The flesh, he states, was much relished by the Bakalahari and the Bushmen, each carrying away his portion on his shoulder like a log of wood. The Kaffirs, on the other hand, hold these serpents in superstitious dread, believing they are animated by the spirit of some great chief ; and in former days any person destroying one was punished with death.

In rainy seasons, Chapman informs us, there is an abundant supply of water in the Kalahari, but frequently when the superficial moisture has dried away, its existence is only known to the Bushmen, who suck it from the damp sand several feet below the surface by means of a tube of reed buried in it, having a sponge-like tuft of grass inserted at the end.

At one of their camps, where they appeared to have nothing to live upon but water, they were asked how they managed to be so fat. It proved that their principal article of diet was the iguana, which happened to be very plentiful in the neighbourhood. The Bushmen trace them by their spoor or trail to the hole they inhabit, and then dig them out, after which they stew the flesh nicely, stamp it fine, and mix it with the fat and eggs of the reptile, which makes a savoury and nourishing dish. These huge land lizards are from three to four feet long, while another larger kind is about six. They are quite distinct from the water kind, which are of a darker and lighter colour, and have the tail laterally compressed like the crocodile to aid them in steering under water.

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These Kalahari lizards are of a pale raw sienna ground-colour, irregularly marked down the back with brown lozenge-shaped patches, with small spots between. They ascend and descend trees with great rapidity. When irritated they not only defend themselves, but attack and give chase to man, when they erect their tails and expand their cheeks, which are of a pale cobalt blue. They dart out their long forked tongues with great rapidity like a snake, and inflict severe blows with their tails, or bite ; but their bite is not venomous.

The precarious life led by the Kalahari Bushmen was strikingly shown by the vast difference in the appearance of the inhabitants of the various encampments ; some were fat and plump, others the most pitiable objects imaginable, men, women, and children shrivelled with hunger. The conditions of their existence and the sudden vicissitudes to which they were exposed, must doubtless have rendered their life one that was constantly veering between a feast and a famine.

"When food is plentiful," says Chapman, "the Bushmen seem to be the happiest of mortals in their simple state, and in their parched wilds, which just give what life requires, but give no more." The wide desert with its life of comparative freedom imparts even to the civilised white man a degree, not exactly of happiness, but of freedom from care and anxiety, which it is hardly possible to obtain in a civilised state of society.

This sense of freedom, however, was not the only enjoyment which these Bushmen possessed ; for the excitement of the chase was their greatest glory. The huntsmen of the Kalahari constructed great lines of fences and a continuous series of pitfalls, which, when we consider the primitive and imperfect tools at their disposal to carry out such extensive works, requiring so large an amount of labour to accomplish, must excite our wonder, if it does not arouse our admiration of their perseverance and enduring energy, which such achievements unquestionably demonstrate.

These fences and pitfalls, which were called telle-kello by the Bushmen, were formed by long funnel-shaped fences converging towards a certain point, in the gorge or apex of which a large pitfall of a particular construction was placed. When these works were completed and a grand battue was decided upon, the Bushmen commenced to watch in shelters adjacent to the telle-'kello fences, in which during the daytime a large fire of hard wood was made. In the evening the hunters covered up the burning embers, and a gentle warmth for a certain distance within their influence was imparted to the atmosphere around.

During the day large clubs of touchwood were prepared, generally from some decayed baobab, and when at night the game poured down to the water, the huntsmen rushed out on either side from their places of concealment, extending themselves towards either end of the funnel-shaped fences, at the entrance they threw the clubs which they had previously ignited at the panic-stricken animals as they tried to avoid entering between the two fences. The burning brands caused them to change their course, until at last the startled animals rushed between the fatal fences, which gradually narrowed as they advanced, increasing at the same time in height and strength.

The demoniac yells and blazing firebrands of their pursuers added to the terror and consequent speed with which the hindermost were impelled onward, until at length, when their terror was at its height, between the highest part of the fences an escape seemed at hand, by the opening in front.

Men on either side guarded the fences so that they did not break through, and with one terrific bound they leaped the low fence fronting the pit and were swallowed in the treacherous abyss into which they were precipitated one upon another, until the whole presented an indescribable chaos of writhing, smothering, tortured animals. The pit was filled with probably from fifty to a hundred head of game, and the living made their escape by trampling over the dying, while the delighted and triumphant Bushmen rushed in, spear in hand, and slew the uppermost as they were struggling to escape.

Chapman states that there was a sociability about these Bushmen which was not always found among the members of tribes of other native races, thus when the larger game was scarce they would hunt all day for roots, bulbs, tortoises, etc., and then in the evening meet together to share and devour the spoils.

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He also mentions another trait in their character, that few who know the special weaknesses of the Hottentot race would be inclined to give them credit for. He states that the Bushmen generally were less corrupt in their morals than any of the larger congregated tribes, excepting when they had been long in close contact with them. They lived comparatively chaste lives, and their women were not at all flattered by the attention of their Bachoana lords. Instead of an honour, they looked upon intercourse with any one out of their tribe, no matter how superior, as a degradation.

As the Kalahari tribes have been occupying a country, probably from a remote past, which has been removed from the great lines of migration of the stronger races, they have remained more perfectly isolated than any other portion of the Bushman family, and have probably, in consequence, retained their habits and modes of thought with less alteration and innovation than any others.

The Bushmen of the West.

It would appear from the frequent occurrence of stone implements used by the Bushmen and the scattered remains of some of their paintings, that, until the intrusion of the pastoral Hottentots, the entire country to the shores of the Atlantic was occupied by them, and that after that intrusion, although many retired more to the eastward, a considerable number clung to the mountain strongholds of their old land, and kept up a continuous warfare against the invaders, which ever increased in intensity until, from the exasperation which it engendered, it became a struggle characterised by peculiar vindictiveness. Some of the weaker clans in like manner sought an asylum among the rocks and solitudes of the sea coast.

Some of these last still survived in 1779, and were then visited by a party of travellers composed of Colonel Gordon, Lieutenant Paterson, Sebastian and Jacobus van Reenen, and a Mr. Pienaar, while fortunately Lieutenant Paterson put on record what they saw of them. He states that they reached the Great river after being nine days in crossing the arid and desolate country they had travelled through, and frequently being more than two days together without obtaining a drop of water. On the banks of the river they observed several old uninhabited huts, where there were numbers of baboons' bones with those of various other wild beasts. Colonel Gordon launched his boat, hoisted the Dutch colours, first drank to the States' health, then that of the Prince of Orange and the Company, after which he gave the river the name of Orange, in honour of that prince.

Crossing the river near its mouth, they came upon a great number of huts which were uninhabited. They were much superior to those built by the generality of the Bushmen, they were loftier and were thatched with grass and furnished with stools made of the back bones of the grampus. The tribe that inhabited them must have at one time been numerous,N although at the time of Paterson's visit only eleven members of it were to be found there. A Namaqua woman was living among them. They were styled Shore-Bushmen, and were living under a chief called 'Cout. Their mode of living was wretched in the highest degree, and they were apparently the dirtiest of all the Hottentot tribes. They had all cut off the first joint of the little finger. Their dress was composed of the skins of seals and jackals, the flesh of which they ate.

Notes: Sometimes great havoc was committed among the Bushmen and other native tribes by the occasional visitation of a severe epidemic, which has sometimes swept off whole tribes, as if before the blast of a pestilence. Chapman informs us that a raging sickness of this kind having decimated some of the Kalahari tribes, an old Bushman named Casse emphatically passed his hand before his mouth and blowing against it strove thus to indicate the clean sweep the extensive mortality had made amongst them. " There are no people left," he said," only stones." He was equally as figurative when speaking of the unseasonable weather, declaring that " the cold wind was cutting off the summer from the winter."

Their principal food appeared to be fish, which was found suspended from poles. When a grampus was cast on shore, they removed their huts to the place, and subsisted upon it as long as any part of it remained, and in this manner it sometimes afforded them subsistence for several months, though in a great measure decayed and putrified in the sun. They smeared their bodies with oil or train, the odour of which was so powerful that their approach was perceived some time before they presented themselves in sight. They carried water in the shells of ostrich eggs and the bladders of seals, which they shot with bows. Their arrows were the same as those of other Hottentot Bushmen.

When they were first seen they took to flight. They were evidently perfectly unacquainted with Europeans, and it was only after considerable persuasion that they made their appearance. This was probably a remnant of a similar tribe to the people called strandloopers by the early Dutch. They were certainly a more primitive race than the nomadic pastoral Hottentots which followed them.

The Bushmen who clung to the mountain fastnesses were still numerous at the time of Barrow's visit in 1796-7. He says that formerly the kloofs of the Khamiesberg abounded with elands and hartebeests, gemsboks, quaggas, and zebras, and were not a little formidable on account of the number of beasts of prey that resorted thither ; but at the period when he wrote, although the lion was still troublesome, the country was almost deserted by beasts in a state of nature, and the Dutch, who in their turn had almost entirely superseded the original Hottentot intruders, were too much in dread of the Bushmen to range far over the country in quest of game.

He found a Bastaard chief (old Cornelius Kok) living near the foot of the mountain, with a mixed horde of Bastaards and Namaquas. In his younger days this man had been a great lover of the chase, and the inside of his matted hut still showed trophies of his prowess. He boasted that, in one excursion he had killed seven camelopards and three white rhinoceroses. But although the intruding races had almost annihilated the game, the Bushmen were still in considerable numbers along the borders, and the same continued state of unrest and alarm prevailed. They were said to be particularly vindictive to any of their own countrymen who had been taken prisoners and continued to live with the Dutch farmers. Should any of those unfortunates again fall into their hands, they seldom escaped being put to the most excruciating tortures.

In the Kaabas mountains, not far from Pella, a narrow pass winds through. It is, says Thompson, a remarkably bold and picturesque defile, cutting its way apparently through the bowels of the mountains, which rise on either hand in ; abrupt precipices at least a thousand feet in height, giving a grand and solemn effect to the scenery, with its rocks and caverns rising round in dim perspective.

This poort, or pass, received an appellation which signified in the Namaqua and Bushman languages the Howling of the Big Men, from an event which took place there in the early days. A party of Boers had left the Colony to survey the banks of the 'Gariep, probably in hopes of discovering in these remote regions a land flowing with milk and honey, with no one to dispute their occupation of it but the feeble and famished natives.

Whether they committed any aggressions on the route upon the Bushmen is not now known, but they were waylaid in this defile on their return by the crafty savages, and many of them slain by showers of stones and poisoned arrows ; and from the dismal holing they made in their flight the pass received its name.

Many other similar traditions were connected with other portions of the country, which have in like manner been marked by some tragedy in the determined and desperate struggle that was made by these aborigines to maintain the independence of their country, and they are evidence of the feelings which were excited in the breasts of the tribes of the desert by the cruel oppressions and arrogant usurpations of the white men.

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THE VARIOUS GROUPS OF BUSHMAN TRIBES (Continued)


The Bushmen of the Western Karoo.

Up to the middle of last century the Bushmen of the Karoo on the borders of the Dutch settlements were living on good terms with the colonists. They roamed about the border districts in a friendly way ; petty thefts now and then occurred, but " Bushman atrocities " were unheard of. It was about this time that some Dutch elephant hunters penetrated into the long kloof to the eastward, and began to make a permanent lodgment there.

The mountains at that time were thickly peopled by Bushman clans, who held the key of all the passes leading to the eastward. Doubtless the newcomers, who were successful huntsmen — as the country literally swarmed with great troops of elephants and every pool and river teemed with hippopotami, — were welcomed as " flesh-givers." This was but the first phase of the contact of the two races.

The case however was altered when, either to escape the grip of the law or the oppressive restrictions of their own government, or from a desire to live a free and untrammelled life in the wilderness with an unlimited extent of land around them, the colonists began to cross the great mountain ranges in considerable and ever-increasing numbers, carrying their numerous flocks and herds with them, invading the Bokkeveld, seizing the fountains, making permanent settlements, destroying or driving away the game, the Bushmen's means of subsistence, treating the inhabitants, the " zwarte schepsels," with menace and contumely, and reducing all those who fell into their grasp to a condition of abject slavery.

Then a spirit of resistance was aroused in the breasts of the Bushmen of the Karoo, and this feeling of hostility gradually increased, as the voortrekkers pressed on, extending themselves wherever water and herbage were to be found, to the Roggeveld in one direction, and to the Camdeboo (or Green Elevations) and De Bruyn's Hoogte, including all the sources of the Sunday's river and the abundant springs of the Sneeuwbergen.

The Bushmen resented this unjustifiable usurpation of their ancestral hunting grounds, this wanton destruction of the game which they looked upon as their property, and the forced servitude of many of their number captured when others were hunted and shot down like wild beasts of the field ; and they rose, from one end of the border line to the other, en masse, and made a desperate effort to drive back the intruders.

The details of the actions of the periodical commandos which followed for the express purpose of totally subduing and extirpating the obnoxious race form a portion of the history of the Dutch settlement ; we shall therefore defer their consideration until we arrive at that section of our subject. Suffice it here to say the Bushmen were pursued and destroyed with a relentless and almost savage ferocity, clan after clan was annihilated, the men were shot down without mercy, and the surviving women and children were dragged into a state worse than slavery.

Sometimes they were destroyed in their caves, and no survivors were left ; all, men, women, and children, perished in a heap ; and men, nominally Christians, boasted, as if they had been engaged in some meritorious act, of the active part they had taken in these scenes of slaughter.

Before any of the history of the Bushmen of the Western Karoo was recorded, their clans had been broken up and scattered, and the miserable remnant, with scarcely the means of subsistence, was reduced to the most deplorable condition of want and wretchedness.

Cruelly as they had been treated by the vast majority of Europeans who invaded their country, some two or three farmers living upon this border stand out as a bright example to the remainder of their countrymen, for the zealous and humane endeavours they made to ameliorate the wretchedness of the unhappy aborigines. They obtained by public subscription a considerable number of sheep and homed cattle for their use, hoping thus to reclaim them from their wandering life ; and by their means, with the co-operation of one of the captains, several hordes of these outcasts were brought together, while an equally zealous missionary, named Kicherer, volunteered to attempt to establish a mission among them.

Among this small knot of right-minded philanthropists, the name of Floris Fischer is undoubtedly pre-eminent. He it was who first attempted to rouse a better feeling in the Bushmen. With other farmers he made a treaty between the Bushmen and themselves, who had suffered terribly in their flocks and herds from depredations. The Bushmen were struck with the solemn appeal to heaven made by Fischer to witness the transaction.

After satisfying some of their enquiries, he, at their request, took some of the principal of them to Cape Town. The missionary, who had newly arrived, returned with them, and the farmers loaded them with things necessary to commence the station, while some accompanied them to the spot first selected, and Zak river became a finger-post. Many farmers exerted themselves with commendable liberality in favour of the object in view.

Unhappily the company and countenance of the Bushmen could not be commanded without a daily portion of victuals and tobacco, of which Mr. Kicherer had received an ample supply from the farmers. The country in which the mission was fixed was sterile in the extreme, and rain so seldom fell that they were obliged to depend upon foreign supplies. It was doubtless to these insurmountable and adverse circumstances that the failure of the mission was chiefly owing.

At Mr. Kicherer's departure the station was left in charge of Mr. and Mrs. A. Vos and a Mr. Botha, a farmer, who had sold all he had to aid the mission. These men, not having equal resources with its founders, though distinguished for exemplary patience, after suffering great privations and hardships from drought and the plundering Bushmen, were compelled in 1806 to abandon the station.

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The Bushmen, as a people, could never appreciate the effort that had been made for their welfare, their wild life and its untrammelled freedom had too many fascinations for them, and they continued to harass and impoverish those of their countrymen attached to it. A few only followed their teacher to Graaff Reinet.

In the above account, which is quoted from Mr. Moffat, the cause of failure in this laudable attempt is attributed principally to the Bushmen themselves ; but there were certainly other causes which from its very commencement entailed an improbability of success. The character of the tract of country set apart for their use was sufficient of itself to mar the entire project. It was the most arid and sterile of all the countless acres of the land of their forefathers.

Every fountain and every stream had been appropriated by the insatiable greed of the intruders, and a piece of ground upon which none of them could live themselves was allotted for the regeneration of the owners of the soil. How could they learn the advantages of a more settled life on a spot where nothing could be cultivated, and scarcely a sufficient supply of their own primitive roots and tubers could be obtained ?

There could be no luxuriant crops, no loaded fruit-trees flourishing before their eyes, to serve as an ocular demonstration of the benefits to be derived from well-directed industry. Even the cattle that were given to them could scarcely obtain sufficient nourishment in a country where there were more stones and sand to be seen than blades of parched and withered grass.

Placing these unfortunate creatures in such a position was enough to confirm them in the idea that their former mode of life was infinitely superior to that to which they were to be condemned by their new friends. This doubtless was the rock upon which the good ship was wrecked. We shall find also from other evidence that at the time this effort was made the entire border was in the utmost anarchy and confusion. The north-western districts were being pillaged and kept in a state of terror by the daring and unchecked exploits of the notorious freebooter Africander and other lawless bands of savage banditti that followed in his wake and professed to act under his inspiration.

A spirit of insubordination still smouldered in the breasts of the more turbulent of the white population, and violence and rapine were everywhere indulged in in open day. Thus it was that in every part of the country where the Bushmen made an attempt to settle, and we shall discover as we proceed that this was not an isolated case, it was not so much from the marauding disposition of their own countrymen that they were impoverished as from the utter lawlessness of the intruders.

They were cajoled out of, or driven by force from, every useful fountain by the whites ; they were dispossessed upon paltry and unsubstantial excuses of the only flourishing mission stations which had been established among them ; and the fountains and lands they were learning to cultivate were most iniquitously granted to the interested complainants, a too palpable proof of the reasons for the charges that were made against these members of a cruelly treated race.

They were attacked and plundered by marauding Griquas and Koranas and some of the other stronger robber pastoral tribes, while the remnant that escaped were driven once more to seek a precarious mode of subsistence, under far more disadvantageous circumstances than their forefathers, the greater part of the game having been destroyed.

Under such circumstances, what could we expect as the natural consequence ? Can we wonder that such well-meaning and meritorious attempts became failures, or that they soon became too late ? " Past sufferings, and past offences on both sides," writes Moffat, " had produced a feeling of hatred so universal that it was of no avail to pacify one party," while in other directions, upon the smallest provocation, their co-patriots were being shot down like wild beasts without pity, and men, women, and children frequently, as we have before mentioned, indiscriminately slaughtered, thus arousing in the breasts of thousands a thirst for revenge and plunder.

It was doubtless this state of affairs which greatly militated against the success of the first missionaries in their attempts to influence them. The few they were able to gather round them were ever in a state of unrest and uncertainty, while their more untamed countrymen were being harried out of the surrounding country, writhing under the wrongs inflicted upon them, or mercilessly butchered whenever they fell into the hands of their pursuers.

From Borcherds we learn that up to the time of his visit some of the Roggeveld Bushmen strenuously defended themselves in several of the strongholds of the country ; thus a defile between two steep hills beyond the Riet river formed one of their great retreats, to which they retired after their forays, and especially to that portion called the Bonteberg, which was too rocky and steep to be ascended with horses.

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Mr. Kicherer gives the following description of the wretched condition in which he found these Bushmen of the Karoo.

Their manner of living, he says, was extremely wretched and disgusting. They delighted to besmear their bodies with the fat of animals, mingled with ochre, and sometimes with grime (probably the black sooty paint with which they frequently painted their bodies). They were utter strangers to cleanliness, as they never washed their bodies, but suffered the dirt to accumulate. Their huts were formed by digging holes in the earth about three feet deep, and then making a roof of reeds, which was, however, insufficient to keep off the rains. Here they lay close together. They were extremely lazy, so that nothing would rouse them to action but excessive hunger.

We have abundance of evidence, however, to show that this was not their natural character in their undisturbed state. The torpor of despair had seized them. They would continue, he adds, several days together without food,N rather than be at the pains of procuring it. When compelled to sally forth for prey they were dexterous in destroying the various beasts which abounded, and they could run almost as well as a horse. They were total strangers to domestic happiness. The men had several wives, but conjugal affection was little known.

Notes: This in all probability must have been after rains, to which, as we have seen, they had a great aversion.

Thompson, who visited these tribes nearly twenty years later, says that after the larger game was driven out of the country by the guns of the Boers and the Griquas, the Bushmen were reduced to the most wretched shifts to obtain a precarious subsistence, living chiefly on wild roots, locusts, and the larvae of insects. Even in 1823 the wandering hordes of this people were scattered over a territory of very wide extent, but of so barren and arid a character that by far the greater portion of it was not permanently habitable by any class of human beings.

Even as it was, colonists were perpetually pressing in upon their territory wherever a fountain or even a temporary pool of water was to be found. Had this territory been fertile, there can be little question but that it would have been years before entirely occupied by the Christians.

They were continually soliciting from the government fresh grants beyond the nominal boundary, and were, in the year above mentioned, very urgent to obtain possession of a tract lying between the Zak and Hartebeest rivers. In defence of these aggressions, they maintained that the Bushmen were a nation of robbers, who, as they neither cultivated the soil nor pastured cattle, were incapable of occupying the country advantageously ; that they would live much more comfortably by becoming the herdsmen and household servants of the Christians than they did on their own precarious resources, and finally that they were incapable of being civilised by any other means.

Field Commandant Gert van der Walt communicated his experiences with regard to these Karoo Bushmen to Mr. Melville, the Government Agent among the Griquas, who thus wrote in 1825 : — Van der Walt stated that both he and his father had been for many years at war with them. From the time he could use a gun he went upon commandos, but he owned that he could now see that no good was ever done by this course of vindictive retaliation. They still continued their depredations, and retained an inveterate spirit of revenge.

He was in constant danger of losing his cattle and of being murdered by them. Having seen the effects of war and cruelty, he had for a few years past tried what might be done by cultivating peace with them, and experience had convinced him that his present plan was most conducive to his interest. He said the Landdrost Stockenstrom was also friendly to pacific measures, and encouraged the plan he had adopted. This was to keep a flock of goats to supply the Bushmen with food in seasons of great want, and occasionally to give them other little presents, by which means he not only kept on good terms with them, but they became very service-able in taking care of his flocks in dry seasons.

He said that on occasions when there was no pasturage on his own farm, he was accustomed to give his cattle entirely into the care of a chief of a tribe who lived near him, and after a certain period they never failed to be brought back again in so improved a condition that he scarcely knew them to be his own.

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Mr. Melville gives another example of faithfulness in the character of these Bushmen. A farmer who had been residing at a place called Dassen Poort (the pass of the rock rabbit or coney) and had built a hut and raised some wheat, but had been ordered away from it by the Landdrost on account of its being beyond the boundaries of the colony, left the wheat he had sown, when he removed from the place, in charge of two Bushmen ; and when Mr. Melville passed the spot these two men were still at the post of duty, carefully watching and guarding the crop from harm : another proof that had the conquering race been desirous of doing so, it would not have been so difficult to have cultivated peace with these oppressed people, if measures of real kindness had been in the first instance adopted towards them.

Further evidence upon this point was gained by Thompson from an old man of about sixty. This man stated that he had lived all his life upon the Bushman frontier. He could recollect the time when few or no murders were committed by Bushmen, especially upon the Christians.

The era of bitter and bloody hostility between them commenced, he said, about fifty years before, or about 1770-73, in the following manner. The burgher Coetzee van Reenen had an overseer who kept his flocks near the Zak river, this man was of a brutal and insolent disposition and a great tyrant over the Bushmen ; he had shot some of them at times out of mere wantonness. The Bushmen submissively endured the oppression of this petty tyrant for a long period, but at length their patience was worn out, and one day when he was cruelly maltreating one of their nation another struck him through with his assagai. This act was represented in the Colony as a horrible murder.

A strong commando was sent into the Bushman country and hundreds of innocent people were massacred to avenge the death of this unhappy wretch. Such treatment roused the animosity of the Bushmen to the highest pitch, and eradicated all remains of respect which they still retained for the Christians.

The commando had scarcely left the country when the whole race of Bushmen along the frontier simultaneously commenced a system of predatory and murderous incursions against the colonists, from the Khamiesberg to the Stormberg. These depredations were retaliated by fresh commandos, who slew the old without pity and carried off the young into bondage. The acts of the commandos were again avenged by new robberies and murders, and mutual injuries were accumulated and mutual rancour kept up to the present day.

The evidence which Thompson obtained from Field Commandant Nejj will form a fitting conclusion to our remarks upon these Bushmen of the Karoo. He informed our traveller that in the last thirty years (that is, from 1793 to 1823) he had been upon thirty-two commandos against Bushmen, in which great numbers had been shot, and their children carried into the Colony. On one of these expeditions no less than two hundred Bushmen were massacred!

In justification of this barbarous system, he narrated many shocking stories of atrocities committed by Bushmen upon colonists, which together with the continual depredations upon their property had often called down upon them the full weight of vengeance. Such was to 1823, to a great extent, the horrible warfare existing between the Christians and the natives of the northern frontier, and by which the process of extermination was still proceeding against the latter, as in the days of Barrow.

This Field-Commandant was in many other respects, so Thompson assures us, a meritorious, benevolent, and clear-sighted man ; and it was a strange and melancholy trait of human nature to see one with so many excellent points in his character so seemingly unconscious that any part of his proceedings, or those of his countrymen, in their wars with the Bushmen could awaken in the breast of a right-minded man a feeling of horror and abhorrence.

The massacre of many hundreds of these miserable creatures, and the carrying away of their children into servitude, seemed to be considered by him and his companions as perfectly lawful, just, and necessary, and as meritorious service done to the public, of which they had no more cause to be ashamed than a brave soldier of having distinguished himself against the enemies of his country ; while, on the other hand, he spoke with detestation of the callousness of the Bushmen in the commission of robbery and murder upon the Christians, not seeming to be aware that the treatment these persecuted tribes had received from the Christians might in their apprehension justify every excess of malice and revenge they were able to perpetrate.

The hereditary sentiments of animosity and the deep-rooted contemptuous prejudices sear the better feelings, in such cases, of those who come under their influence ; and thus it has been that the conduct of the farmers towards the ill-fated race was rather of a description to render them more barbarous and desperate than to conciliate or civilise them.

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The Bushmen of the Camdeboo and Sneeuwberg.

The tribes of these two localities belong to the same group, the former being the name of the country occupied by the projecting buttresses which extend far from the foot, and support the Snowy mountains, and which on that account are mostly covered with verdure. They were styled 'Cam'deboo, or the Green Elevations, by the old inhabitants ; while the Sneeuwbergen form the higher and central ridges, culminating in the crest of the Compassberg, the highest point in Southern Africa, with the exception of the ridge of the Drakensberg. In treating of the one, we shall therefore be describing the other.

Sparrman, who is the oldest writer who notices the Bushmen of this part of the country, and who visited it after they had been harried by commandos, had evidently imbibed a little of the colonial prejudice against them. He states that the Sneeuwbergen, which lie to the north of the Camdeboo, were so called from the snow with which in winter time the highest of them were covered, and which even remained on them during part of the summer. The Lower Sneeuwbergen were inhabited the year throughout, but on the higher range of hills the winters were severe enough. This circumstance compelled the colonists who settled there to remove during the winter into the plains below Camdeboo.

The inhabitants, who had only forced themselves into, and located themselves in that portion of the Bushman territory a short time before Sparrman's arrival, in the more distant parts of this range were obliged to entirely relinquish their dwellings and habitations, on account of the savage plundering race of Bushmen, who from their hiding places, shooting forth their poisoned arrows at the shepherd, killed him, and afterwards drove away the whole of his flock, which perhaps consisted of several hundred sheep, and formed the chief, if not the whole, of the farmer's property. What they could not drive away with them they killed and wounded as much as the time allowed them while they were making their retreat.

It was in vain to pursue them, they being so very swift of foot, and taking refuge in the steep mountains, which they were able to run up almost as nimbly as baboons or monkeys. From these they rolled down great stones on any one who was imprudent enough to follow them. The approach of night gave them time to withdraw themselves entirely from those parts, by ways and places with which none but themselves were acquainted. They then collected together again in bodies numbering some hundreds, from their hiding places and clefts in the mountains, in order to commit fresh depredations and robberies.

Neither Sparrman nor anyone else of the time thought for a moment of the grievous wrong which had been done by the land-robbers who had seized upon all their hunting grounds, surrounding the mountains of their ancestors, the ancient men who had adorned their numerous cave dwellings with innumerable paintings showing the history and hunting achievements of their race for unknown generations. The hundreds of whom he speaks had been most unceremoniously dispossessed of their country, and all their mountain streams had been appropriated to gratify the territorial greed of a few score men, who called themselves civilised because they had guns in their hands.

One of these colonists, who had been obliged to flee from the defenders of the mountains, informed Sparrman that the Bushmen grew bolder every day, and seemed to increase in numbers since people had with greater earnestness set about extirpating them. This is but another proof of the determination of their resistance ; they rallied at the point of greatest danger, as it was doubtless this cause which occasioned them to collect in large bodies, in order to be the better able to withstand the encroachments of the colonists, who had already taken away their best dwelling and hunting places. An instance was related in which these Sneeuwberg Bushmen had besieged a peasant with his wife and children in their cottage, till at length he drove them off by repeatedly firing among them.

Not long before this, however, they had suffered a considerable defeat in the following manner. Several farmers, who perceived that they were not able to get at the Bushmen by the usual methods, shot a sea-cow, and took only the prime part of it for themselves, leaving the rest by way of bait ; they themselves in the meantime lying in ambush.

The Bushmen with their wives and children now came down from their hiding-places, with the intention of feasting sumptuously on the sea-cow that had been shot ; but the farmers, who came back again very unexpectedly, turned the feast into a scene of blood and slaughter.N Pregnant women and children in their tenderest years were not at this time, neither indeed were they ever, exempt from the effects of the hatred and spirit of vengeance constantly harboured by the colonists with respect to the Bushman nation, excepting such indeed as were marked out to be carried away into bondage.

Notes: We shall find as we proceed that this treacherous mode of attack was carried out on a more extensive scale by one of the large commandos under the guidance of a Field-Commandant.

Did a colonist at any time get sight of a Bushman, he took fire immediately, and spirited up his horse and dogs in order to hunt him with more ardour and fury than he would a wolf or any other wild beast.

On an open plain a few colonists on horseback were always sure to get the better of the greatest number of Bushmen that could be brought together, as the former always kept at a distance of a hundred or a hundred and fifty paces, as they might find it convenient, and charging their heavy fire-arms with a very large kind of shot, jumped off their horses and took rest in their usual manner on their ramrods, in order that they might shoot with greater certainty, so that the balls discharged by them would sometimes, as Sparrman was assured go through the bodies of six, seven or eight of the enemy at a time, especially as these latter knew no better than to keep close together in a body.

It was true, on the other hand, the Bushmen could shoot their arrows to the distance of two hundred paces, but with a very uncertain aim, as the arrow must first necessarily have made a curve in the air, and should it even at that distance have chanced to hit any of the farmers, it would not have been able to go through his hat or his ordinary linen or coarse woollen coat.

In the district of the Sneeuwberg the landdrost appointed one of the farmers, with the title of Field-Corporal, to command in these wars, and, as occasion might require, to order out the country people in separate parties for the purpose of defending the country against its original inhabitants.

The government, indeed, had no other part in the cruelties exercised by its subjects than that of taking no cognizance of them ; but in this point it was certainly too remiss, in leaving a whole nation to the mercy of every peasant, or in fact every one that chose to invade their land, as of such people one might naturally expect that interested views and an unbridled spirit of revenge would prevail over the dictates of prudence and humanity.

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Sparrman declares that he was far from accusing all the colonists of having a hand in these and other cruelties, which were too frequently committed in this quarter of the globe. While some plumed themselves upon them, there were many who, on the contrary, held them in abomination and feared lest the vengeance of heaven should, for all these crimes, fall upon the land and their posterity.

In 1782 Le Vaillant travelled through this portion of the country. In his time the Bushmen, notwithstanding all the attacks which had been made upon them, still resolutely maintained themselves in the more inaccessible parts of the range. On approaching it, a kraal of Hottentots was found near the foot of the mountain, who had migrated from some of the western districts.

On approaching it, the children no sooner saw the new- comers than they ran to hide themselves, screaming horribly. It contained about one hundred and thirty men, and they possessed about one hundred head of cattle and treble that number of sheep. They were busily engaged in drying locusts on mats, having previously pulled off the wings and legs.

The colonial method of attempting to conciliate the unfortunate Bushmen is well illustrated by an incident in which Le Vaillant, a professed philanthropist, was personally engaged. One of the keepers of his stock, he informs us, came and reported to him that several Bushmen had descended from the mountains and drew near to them, but had been kept in awe by a few discharges of their muskets.

Immediately he and his chief attendant got on horseback, and accompanied by four good marksmen, went in quest of such dangerous plunderers, and soon discovered thirteen of them. The Bushmen seeing the pursuing party advancing resolutely, and hearing their bullets whistle through the air, presently took to flight, and though the traveller and his men followed at full speed, they could not get near enough to hit them. They presently regained and hid themselves in the mountains. Le Vaillant confesses that he could not help admiring the address with which they climbed like monkeys the most craggy and steep parts of the rock, where he did not pretend to follow, as it would have been imprudent to attack them in their inaccessible retreats.

As it was, it was certainly one of the most unprovoked attacks on his part, a mere traveller through the country, but from the way he speaks of it, he evidently considered it a very dashing and meritorious action.

Le Vaillant states that he considered the Bushmen were a different nation from the Hottentots. In some cantons they were called Chinese Hottentots, because their complexions resembled the Chinese seen at the Cape, and like them too they were of middling stature. He imagined that they were a peculiar race of Hottentots, distinguished by the savages of the desert, who had no communication with the Dutch settlements, by the name Houswaana.

He further states that this branch of the Bushman family formerly inhabited the Camdeboo, the Bokkeveld, and the Roggeveld ; but the usurpation of the whites, to whom, like the other savages, they had fallen victims, obliged them to seek refuge at a distance from their country, inhabiting in his time the vast space that lies between Kaffraria and the country of the Namaquas.

Of all the nations, he adds, who have been ill-treated by the Europeans, none remembered their wrongs with so much bitterness. They never forgot the treachery of the colonists or the infamous return made for the many signal services they had rendered them, and such, he says, was the resentment of these people, that the terrible cry of vengeance was ever in their mouths.

The Bushmen of Achter De Bruyn's Hoogte and the Great Eastern Plains.

Of these tribes and the country which they inhabited, Sparrman affords the following interesting particulars. These were the tribes which were called by the voortrekkers the Cineese or Snese Hottentots, i.e. Chinese Hottentots. The clans which inhabited De Bruyn's and Achter De Bruyn's Hoogte lived peace- ably with the first Christians who migrated there. The latter were then few in number, and doubtless found it expedient to adopt, as all isolated voortrekkers ever did, a conciliatory policy towards the aborigines, instead of the arrogant and overbearing treatment meted out as soon as their number was sufficiently augmented to enable them to dictate terms to those who in the first instance had welcomed them as friends.

In the days of their weakness the Bushmen were accustomed to perform the kindest offices for them, and would frequently go unasked in search of a stray lamb or the like belonging to the Christians, and take it home to them ; but at length, after their countrymen had been harried by the relentless commandos, and massacred in their caves, they withdrew themselves and lived concealed in the holes and crevices of the rocks in different parts of the country, like the other Bushmen.

Yet, being fewer in number, they were not altogether so bold and daring. Their complexions being rather of a yellowish cast, they were considered by the early Dutch settlers as a different nation, and were consequently called Chinese or Snese Hottentots.

The chief abode of these fugitives was on each side of the two Fish rivers. Another and more considerable part of this yellow-skinned nation was dispersed, in 1776, over a tract of country eleven days' journey in breadth, and situated more to the north than to the north-east of the Fish rivers, near a river called Tsomo, where some of them were said to be occupied in grazing and rearing cattle.

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One of these tribes was called 'Tambu'ki, and there seems no reason to doubt that frequent intermarriages took place between them and some of the pioneer clans of the Abatembu. From this friendly intercourse the two races would assimilate gradually to each other, as we shall discover that the Ghonaquas did with the foremost struggling clans of those Kaffir tribes which during their migrations continued to hug the coast, just as a similar partial amalgamation took place between them and the pioneer clans which formed the van in the southern migration of the Bachoana tribes. In all these cases, isolated fugitives from the various advancing branches first came in contact with the aboriginal Bushmen occupying the country, then came small detached clans far in advance of the main body, too few in number to appear in any other guise than that of friends and suppliants.

During this phase of the intercourse between the various races, while the Bushmen were still the more numerous and stronger party and the masters of the situation, friendly relations were maintained, and a half-caste race with various gradations of intermixture sprang up at the different points of contact. Some of the Bushmen, obtaining in exchange for their furs or beads a few cattle from their new friends, thus became semi-pastoral, while the latter, in their turn, adopted, or rather grafted upon their own customs, a few of those of their entertainers.

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The old Bushman tribe of the 'Tambu'ki was a striking example of this.N They appear to have occupied the valley of the Tsomo, and were described 'to Sparrman by the Chinese Bushmen as being like themselves in complexion, but more powerful and warlike. They said that beyond them was another nation still more warlike and intrepid, whom they called the Mambukis, apparently the Abatembu.

When treating of this latter tribe, we shall learn that Lieutenant Paterson also states distinctly that these 'Tambu'ki were originally a Bushman tribe, with the members of which the advanced Abatembu contracted marriage, and that upon the occasion of a civil war breaking out between two rival branches of this Kaffir tribe, the weaker of them fled and sought a refuge among the 'Tambu'ki Bushmen, with whom they amalgamated, and were ever after known by the sobriquet of Tambuki.

The Bushman element became absorbed, and ultimately overwhelmed, by the increasing numbers of the stronger race. The high cheek-bones, the moderate stature of many, the remarkably small feet and hands of some of their chiefs, being a striking divergence from the pure Kaffir type, and finally the adoption by this division of the Abatembu of the Bushman custom of mutilating the hand by cutting off the first joint of one of their fingers, are all unquestionable proofs of this friendly amalgamation of the advanced tribes of the two races.

Notes: This fact is established by the evidence obtained from native and other sources during his travels among their countrymen in the north, and from the corroborative information collected when among some of the Amaxosa Kaffirs in the south, by Lieutenant Paterson. Witnesses so far removed and isolated from one another must needs be independent.

With regard to the amicable disposition of these Bushmen, Sparrman informs us that small parties of Christians had travelled all through this country, and shot elephants there unmolested, yet they thought it necessary for their greater security to shut themselves up at night in their waggons as in a castle. The more considerable rivers which ran through the country of the Chinese Bushmen were the following : t'Kamsi-f’kay, or the White Kei ; t'Nu-t'kay, the Black Kei, and the Little 'Zomo and Great 'Zomo or the Tsomo. Beyond the last, in 1776, another country belonging to a different nation commenced.

Sparrman states that although up to his time no attempt had been made to improve the condition of the Bushmen and make them better men and more useful to the colonists, still, judging from the disposition of those who had been hired in the colonists' service or made slaves of, it did not seem impossible to be effected, although he saw that the sentiments commonly entertained to their disadvantage, as well as the cruelties which had hitherto been practised upon them, could not but lay many impediments in the way of an attempt of this nature.

These Chinese Bushmen made delineations upon the smooth surface of the rocks, though in as uncouth and artless a style as might be expected from so rude and unpolished a people.

The Bushmen of the Bamboesberg.

The Bamboesberg is a portion of the great Stormberg, which in this particular locality forms a double range that in the early days presented such an impenetrable and insurmountable barrier, with its intricate and precipitous fastnesses, that up to the year 1797 it was considered so completely impassable either with waggons or on horseback, that no one had ever penetrated into it. These strongholds, as they had ever been, were still in the hands of formidable Bushman clans. The Bamboesberg, Stormberg, and Tarka tribes appear to have belonged to the same group, and frequently to have acted in conjunction with one another in their efforts to repel the invaders of their ancient hunting-grounds.

In Barrow's time a portion of the Bamboesberg was occupied by a formidable horde about five hundred strong, under a captain named by the colonists Lynx. This traveller informs us that caverns full of their drawings were found in some of these mountains, such as elephants, hippopotami, and among the rest one camelopard.N In the course of the journey he saw several thousand figures of animals, but none had the appearance of being monstrous, none that could be considered as works of the imagination ; they were generally as faithful representations of nature as the talents of the artist would allow.

Notes: The writer has found several drawings of the giraffe in the Zwart Kei and Tsomo caves, also in the Wittebergen of the Orange Free State, indubitably proving that this animal was found in the early days over a far wider area of country than at present.

An instance of this was shown in one of the caves visited, and one which clearly demonstrates the efforts the leading Bushman artists made to copy nature, efforts which were crowned with such success that some chef d'œuvres, the productions of their native Landseers, must from their correctness of outline, their action, their shading, and their finish, fill every impartial beholder with astonishment. Barrow found the back shell of a particular tortoise, the testudo geometrica, lying on the floor of the cave. The artist had evidently been disturbed, and thrown down his model in his flight, for on the smooth side of the cave the regular lines with which it is marked, and from which it takes its name, had been very recently and very accurately copied !

The struggle of these mountaineer Bushmen was a long and desperate one ; the fact has been recorded, but most of the details are lost, and those which have been preserved are so interwoven with the border history of the Colony that we shall defer their recital until we treat upon that subject. Sometimes the commandos committed frightful massacres amongst them, and ranges of mountains would appear cleared for the time ; but suddenly they would rally again in renewed strength, and the avengers of blood would drive the intruders from their homesteads, from the mountain-rills and picturesque nooks they had chosen, to seek a more secure retreat in the open plains.

Thus had the Tarka been abandoned at the time of Barrow's visit. The paintings found in the Bushman caves of the Tarka mountains proclaimed the rights and title deeds of the aborigines, while the deserted farms in the glens at their foot, where vineyards loaded with grapes, and peach trees, and almond, apple, and pear trees full of fruit were found, and no hands to pluck them, made known the temporary defeat of the invaders.

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The Bushmen of the Tooverberg and the Northern Plains.

We have chosen the Tooverberg, or Mountain of the Wizard, as the representative centre of this group, as much has been recorded of the Bushmen who lived in its neighbourhood, in consequence of a Bushman mission station having at one time existed there. This mountain received its distinguishing appellation from the Boers who first discovered it, from the fact of its being seen from a great distance, and which from its size and the flatness of the country to the south of it, they imagined was much nearer than it really was. It therefore appeared to keep receding as they advanced, hence they gave it the name of the Mountain of the Wizard.

In 1820 there were many Bushmen in the country surrounding it. When Mr. Backhouse visited them some of them informed him that their forefathers had dwelt there from time immemorial. In the year mentioned they were living under a chief named 'Na'na'kow by his own people, and Uithaalder by the Dutch. His territory extended from the Zeekoe river to Van der Walt's Buffels Fontein, and in describing it 'Na'na'kow used to say that he drank of the Zeekoe river and of Van der Walt's Fontein. The whole of his country swarmed with elands, gnus, and springboks.

The first mission station appears to have been established by Mr. Kolbe, a German missionary, but the honour of having first pleaded the cause of these Bushmen certainly belongs to the Rev. A. Faure, a minister of the Dutch Reformed church, who had long resided on the exposed frontier of Graaff Reinet. His evidence is both valuable and conclusive on the character of these Bushmen for fidelity in any trust imposed upon them. The farmers, he writes, are entirely dependent on the Bushmen for their welfare. Few, if any, have either slaves or Hottentots, consequently they have no means of getting their cattle properly tended without their assistance.

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Such farmers as possess Bushmen have been in the habit of committing to them the charge of their flocks, and they have proved such faithful shepherds that the farmers have not hesitated to give them some hundreds of ewes and other cattle to sojourn with them beyond the limits of the Colony.

The Bushman, having received a reward of some tobacco, dacha or wild hemp leaves, for smoking, and perhaps two or three ewes, left the habitation of the colonist, drove the cattle into distant parts, with the fertility of which he was well acquainted, and after an absence of some months returned to the farmer his cattle in such improved condition that had they not had his particular mark upon them, he would with difficulty have credited that they were the same animals which on account of their leanness the Bushman could with difficulty remove from his farm.

Facts of this kind prove not only the individual honesty of the Bushman thus trusted, but also the general honesty of all those of his race with whom he must have, of necessity, come in contact during the long period of his wanderings. Sometimes the farmer, Mr. Faure continues, put the fidelity of the Bushman to the test by sending one or two of his acquaintances to try whether they could not obtain a sheep by promising some reward, but the instances were rare in which such messengers succeeded. Many farmers on the frontier assured Mr. Faure that had it not been for the Bushmen they saw no means of breeding cattle.

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Bearing upon this subject, Colonel Collins, in his report (1809) upon the native tribes, recommended that the Bushmen should be introduced into the colony, collected and instructed in institutions, and then dispersed among the colonists. He pointed out such positions as he considered most eligible for the formation of stations under proper regulations.

The Bushmen, he stated, often suffered extreme misery, but seldom robbed except to satisfy their wants, and afforded the fairest hope of becoming in time useful to themselves and to the colony. Humanity and policy therefore combined to prompt the adoption of every measure that could tend to alleviate their unhappy lot and attach them to the settlers. He pointed out the necessity of some steps being immediately taken, lest the inhabitants becoming tired of their importunities, the Bushmen should return to the mountains and recommence their former predatory mode of life.

From the above it would appear that there was a short lull about this time in the war of extermination which had raged for upwards of thirty years with vindictive violence, sweeping over the fated Bushman territory in a pitiless storm of blood ; and it would have been well for the cause of humanity and the honour of the British name had this warning voice been listened to, and this opportunity of arresting the extinction of this cruelly treated and unhappy race been seized and utilised, as was so earnestly recommended in Colonel Collins' valuable report.

But alas ! this fitting opportunity was allowed to pass, and a second period of war and extermination was entered upon as remorselessly and pitilessly as the one which had preceded it, and which every right-minded man must look upon with humiliation and abasement, when he considers that although it was accomplished by the same agency as before, it was carried out under the auspices of a government whose proud boast was that it ever upheld the cause of justice and right, defended from their oppressors the weak, and struck off the fetters from the slave.

In 1814 a mission was established at Tooverberg, near the site of the present town of Colesberg, and another was founded at Hephzibah at a subsequent period. In about a month's time there were collected at the latter place no fewer than eight hundred and eighty-seven Bushmen, exclusive of children ; and the Bushmen belonging to the two stations at this period amounted to seventeen hundred.

The Bushmen having once settled at the station, generally went out to invite others of their nation to join them, and when they succeeded, these were introduced to the missionary, and after staying a few days at the institution, usually returned to bring their families with them. During the continuance of these institutions they committed no depredations in the Colony, or anywhere else. Not only were there no depredations, but no pretext was found for the visitation on the part of the colonists of those terrible armed parties which had caused so much havoc among the hapless aborigines.

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But the Bushmen were not allowed to remain long in peaceful possession of the lands which they were learning to cultivate with the inherent energy of their race. Too many greedy eyes were set upon the fountains which watered the fertile fields they had been taught to sow. In 1816 some differences arose between the resident missionary of Tooverberg and some of the neighbouring farmers who had appropriated the country respecting the seizure of some children belonging to the station. This disagreement became the pretext for the suppression of the missions ; the fieldcomet Van der Walt was against the missions, and had reported unfavourably about them to the landdrost.

No specific charges appear to have been made, nor was any investigation instituted. A kind of general assertion was advanced that the collection of so many savages so near the colonial border was a menace to the peace of the colony.

Poor Bushmen ! the colonial border advanced upon them, not they towards the frontier line. This however mattered not, Lord Charles Somerset merely stated that he was under the obligation of recalling the missionaries within the limits of the colony, as these Bushman institutions were detrimental to its interests. The manner in which they were detrimental can only be decided by the action which was almost immediately initiated. About 1819-20 the greater part of the mission Bushmen were either killed or frightened away by the great influx of Boers in that year.

How it could be for a moment imagined that this arbitrary and continual seizure of land, without the slightest reservation being made for the unfortunate outcasts whose fathers had occupied it unchallenged from time immemorial, could be carried into effect without outraging every sense of justice, seems almost marvellous ; yet still more so on our finding that when a hapless Bushman, not only deprived of his ancient country but also of the very game which had been to him as much his means of subsistence as the flocks and herds of the intruders who were superseding him were of theirs, happened to steal a sheep to keep himself and his family from starving, if apprehended and taken alive, he was publicly flogged under the scaffold, branded with a hot iron, put in irons, and condemned to hard labour.

'Na'na'kow, the last Bushman captain of the Tooverberg, still clung to the old haunts of his fathers, notwithstanding the bloody fate of most of his tribe, to the year 1825, when he was seen there by Dr. Philip.

He stated that many years before his father's kraal, without the least provocation, had been suddenly attacked by a party of Boers from the Colony ; and that his father and many hundreds of his people, men, women, and children, had been killed ; that afterwards ten waggons were laden with the surviving children and driven off to the colony by the attacking party ; that since that time many commandos had come against his people, that multitudes of them had been shot, and the children carried away ; that when the missionary came he ploughed and sowed land for them, and when the harvest was ripe, he taught them how to cut down the corn, and divided it among them ; and they were happy, for no more commandos came upon them ; that some moons after the missionary had left them the Boers came and took possession of the fountains and chased them from the land of Tooverberg, the land of their fathers, and made them go and herd their sheep and forced their children into perpetual servitude ; and that he, without people, with only his wife and four children, was hiding amongst the mountains and subsisting on roots and locusts ; that whenever sheep or goats or cattle strayed, or were stolen, the Boers said that the Bushmen had stolen them, and they were flogged and shot on suspicion only, for the cattle and sheep which had been taken by others or destroyed by hyenas, lions, or panthers.

Such was the statement of a Bushman when heard in his own defence, and it seems to contain a large amount of truth, when compared with whatever collateral evidence can be obtained upon the subject.

It seems also a significant fact that Fieldcomet Van der Walt, the very man who was the most active in raising the outcry against the institutions intended for the benefit of the Bushmen, was the one who profited most by their suppression, by possessing himself of a large portion of the lands attached to them and forcing some of the people into his service, even Uithaalder himself, until the treatment he received determined him to escape once more to his native mountains. For several years longer he tenaciously clung to the home of his fathers, until the same tragical fate overtook him as had befallen the rest of his tribe.

He and a few faithful followers who had rallied round him were shot by a commando under the same Van der Walt, who was then Field-Commandant, about the year 1827-8, and thus perished the last ruler of the Tooverberg Bushmen.

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THE VARIOUS GROUPS OF BUSHMAN TRIBES (continued)


The bushmen of Reyner mountain

It has been said by the supporters of Griqua claims that when the missionaries first took possession of Klaarwater, the country was unoccupied. The fallacy of this assertion will be fully proved as we proceed with our investigation. In 1820 a considerable number of Bushmen were still living scattered over the country between Griquatown and Lithako, the great place at that time of the Batlapin.

They appear, however, to have congregated principally about the locality called Reyner Mountain and from Koing Fontein and Alers plain on the west to the Malalarene and Kolong on the east. They were often met with in small parties, in miserable huts, on the open flats. These all belonged to the sculptor tribes, and few of them, as we have already pointed out, appear to have lived in caves, owing doubtless to the peculiar formation of the country, in which any large numbers of rock-shelters are seldom met with.

As in every instance where the stronger races have come in contact with these aboriginal hunters, the Koranas, Griquas, and Batlapin displayed the utmost vindictiveness towards them. It seemed a strange perversion of ideas in all these tribes, which were accustomed to condemn the Bushmen with such vehemency as rogues, that they should themselves be professional thieves whenever they had an opportunity. The only difference between them as to roguery was that the Bushmen stole in small companies and the others in large parties like an army. The same way of judging, however, is as common in Europe, the crime and the charge seem both lost where the perpetrators are numerous.

Mr. Campbell states that upon one occasion when with their accustomed hatred, some Batlapin could scarcely be restrained from dispatching a couple of Bushmen who had been made prisoners by his Hottentot servants, he attempted to point out to them that the only difference between the crime of the Batlapin and the Bushmen was that the former did it upon a larger scale than the latter. While the Bushmen contented themselves with what was necessary to supply present wants, the Batlapin in their commandos took from one another hundreds and thousands of cattle. When the Batlapin were reasoned with on the cruelty of their disposition towards the Bushmen, they justified themselves by the bad qualities they ascribed to them.

These Bushmen seldom attempted to seize many cattle at once, and their raids were made more to supply the cravings of hunger than to gratify any desire for the accumulation of large herds, such as impelled the neighbouring Hottentot and Bachoana tribes to make continuous forays upon one another. As soon as they had succeeded in securing a small quantity of cattle, they generally signalled to their brethren from the top of some hill, that they might know from the ascending smoke that a capture had been made and that they had better get out of the way.

One of the great places of refuge for the Bushmen in this part of the country was about three miles to the south of Neale's Fontein, on an elevation in the plain where there was a remarkable excavation in the solid rock. It was about a quarter of a mile in circumference. The rock was perpendicular all round, and about one hundred feet high, excepting a declivity in one part of it which was easily ascended. This was covered with trees, while no other trees were found in that part of the plain. At the bottom was a deep pool of excellent water.

Almost on a level with the surface of the water was a cave, which had a narrow entrance, and was frequently used by Bushmen as a refuge from their pursuers when they had stolen cattle, because here they could feast in safety, for though the Batlapin would sometimes pursue them to the mouth of the cave, they never had courage to follow them into that dark abode.

That these Bushmen under different treatment would have been capable of improvement, and were not altogether the irreclaimable savages that their enemies, the Griquas and Batlapin, delighted to depict them, is illustrated by a fact mentioned by Mr. Campbell, of a Griqua who had been able with great labour to cut a canal near the source of a stream, by which he could lead .a sufficient supply of water over all his land, and this he had been enabled to accomplish through the assistance of the Bushmen.

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One of their chiefs was living in 1820 in a district at the south end of Reyner Mountain, about half-way between Griquatown and Lithako. His name was 'Hon'ke, or the Little Lamb, and he was the son of 'Hon'ke-yeng, the Very Little Lamb. He informed Mr. Campbell that he and his forefathers had always lived at the same place, and that his people were formerly more numerous than at that time, their number having been reduced by disease and by attacks of the Bachoana. 'Hon'ke stated that he had never travelled farther to the north than Koening Fontein, a place about twenty miles from his kraal, except once when he carried a letter to Lithako, or farther to the east than the 'Gij- 'Gariep or Vaal river, where he went to steal cattle. He confessed that he had killed five men, either in fighting about game or in revenge for their having murdered some of his friends.

Common report, however, gave him credit for having killed a much larger number. In all his combats he had only received two wounds from poisoned arrows, one in his right arm, the other in his side, either of which would have proved mortal had not the flesh been instantly cut out. Although in earlier times there were frequent skirmishes among Bushmen, he said that the men of other Bushman tribes never attacked him then, being afraid because they knew that he was a brave and resolute man.

Like all their countrymen, these Bushmen were exposed to great hardships, being often destitute of food for several successive days during seasons when both roots and game were scarce. When flesh was plentiful they had a mode of drying it and then pounding it to powder, in which state it kept many days.

One of the Bushmen of this tribe was pointed out who had an aged mother-in-law, and it was stated that one day during his absence from home her own daughter, his wife, dragged the old woman into the veld and left her alive among the bushes, where she was torn to pieces by the hyenas the same night. The chief said, in speaking of such matters, that the Bushmen did not think they had souls ; they died one after the other, the young people were buried and the old thrown to the wild beasts.

The greater number of these Bushmen were subsequently hunted down and destroyed by the Griquas and Batlapin, who never allowed an opportunity to escape of venting their feelings of hatred upon them ; the miserable remnant the Griqua chief Waterboer took under his protection.

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The Bushmen of the Malalarene and 'Kolong.

The branch of the Vaal now generally marked on maps as the Hart river appears in former days to have been distinguished by three different names, each indicating a particular portion of the stream. The Lower Hart near its junction with the Vaal was known as the ‘Kolong, the central portion as the 'Hhou, while the upper had received the appellation of the Malalarene, the two first being of Bushman origin, the last of Bachoana.

Bushmen were at one time very numerous in this locality, hunting as far to the north as Kuruman, and even in 1820, between this place and T'shopo numerous pitfalls were to be seen, which had been excavated by them. To the eastward their hunting grounds reached to the Vaal, and the great chief of their clans was looked upon as the most powerful Bushman captain in that region. They, like those of Reyner Mountain, belonged to the sculptor branch of the Bushman family. Much of the little history which has been preserved about them is so intermingled with that of the neighbouring tribes that we shall reserve its details until treating of the latter.

In 1820 the name of their great chief was Ma'ku-une ; his father's name was 'Kama'cha, and that of his mother 'Ab. His father died before he was born, when his mother married another Bushman, named 'Ta'ku. He informed Mr. Campbell that when he was young the Bushmen of those parts were far more numerous than they were at that time. Many of them had been destroyed in attacks by the Batlapin and Koranas.

The first raid in which he had been engaged was against the Batlapin, in which, though many oxen were captured, the whole were eaten in two days. His second was undertaken against the Ta-ma-has, but in this they were frustrated, as their design had been discovered, and his party returned without booty. Only one woman, who was found concealing herself, was killed. Another foray in which he was engaged was directed against the Baharara, another portion of the same tribe, when they were more successful ; but again on this occasion the cattle which were captured only furnished a sufficiency for a feast of two days. His last expedition was when his people united with the Koranas against the Batlapin.

He had raised his fame among his tribe as a great hunter, having killed during his lifetime four lions, one panther, two leopards, three camelopards, seven buffaloes, two rhinoceroses, two gnus, one hippopotamus, and numberless quaggas, besides other game.

A few years previously he had about one hundred people with him in his kraal ; murders and disease had, however, so thinned their ranks that in 1820 they were reduced to a small number. He had still a few people at three different places who acknowledged subjection to him.

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The Bushmen of this part were all of diminutive size, and did not paint their bodies like many of the other tribes, except on special occasions. However wretched and starved they appeared in times of scarcity, with a change to good living they fattened in a few weeks, like cattle when translated from barren heaths to good pasturage.

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The Bushmen of the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal.

There can be no doubt but that the portion of this river valley between the junction of the Vaal with the 'Gumaam or Vet and the 'Kolong was thickly inhabited by the sculptor branch of the Bushman race from a very remote period. Some of the evidences of this lengthened occupation have already been referred to ; similar proofs upon this point might be advanced, but those to which we have alluded will be sufficient to substantiate the fact. Their headquarters appear to have been at the kopje behind the Pniel mission station and the one situated half-way between that place and the Kimberley diamond mine. Scattered around these, the traces of a number of minor outstations are to be found.

It is here and at the 'Gumaap, or Great Riet river, that the finest specimens of their sculptures are to be found, and it was here also that Bushmen had made the greatest advances towards a more comfortable state of existence. This was especially the case with those clans occupying the country towards the 'Gu-maam, or Vet river, where the friendly intercourse which had sprung up between them and the Leghoya, an emigrant tribe of the Bachoana who had settled amongst them, had been beneficial in advancing them in the scale of comfort and civilisation far beyond that found among any of the more western tribes. They had become semi-pastoral, possessing comparatively many cattle, some of the kraals being the owners of as many as five hundred head.

This progress, however, proved the very means of ensuring their speedy destruction as soon as their country was invaded by the more lawless, yet stronger races, with whose history their extermination was so interwoven that it will be necessary for us to postpone the investigation of this portion of our subject until we treat of the career of such tribes as the Koranas, Griquas, and Basutu. It is the same story of injustice, oppression, and cruelty as that which we have related about the Bushmen of the Tooverberg, aggravated towards its close by the advent of the men who for the last century had been the bitterest persecutors of this ill-fated race.

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The Bushmen of the 'Nu 'Gariep, or Upper Orange.

The Bushman tribes inhabiting the basin of the 'Nua 'Gariep may be divided into several groups. One of these occupied the country from the Makaleng or Komet Spruit to beyond Thaba Bosigo, including the 'Kheme, and to Platberg on the right bank of the Noka Mogokare or Caledon. They acknowledged a Bushman captain, Lekoumetsa by name, as their great chief, who was an old man in 1820,N and who was succeeded by 'Khiba, or 'Kheba, who was the paramount chief over the men of the caves from Matlakeng, or the Place of the Vultures, to the Great Hang-lip in the Genadeberg.

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These Bushmen were called Baroa ba Makhoma Khotu by the Basutu, as some of the kraals had cattle in their possession. M. Arbousset mentions a second group called Mamanchou, who took their name from one of the great women of the tribe, but he does not mention the locality in which they lived. He also states that 'Kheme, 'Rhosatsaneng, 'Ku'ku, and 'Koes (Koesberg) are some of the oldest Bushman names in the country.

Notes: Notes of Charles Sirr Orpen. Letter from M. Arbousset in 1859.

Another powerful group of clans occupied the right bank of the 'Nu 'Gariep from its junction with the Noka Mogokare or Caledon, up along the course of the stream beyond Lotter's Kop, Lichtenstein, and Riebeeksdal ; and in the opposite direction as far as Badfontein to Bosjes Spruit, while towards the north the caves in Mononong or Great Aasvogelkop were included in their territory.

The paramount chief at the beginning of this century was Ow'ku'ru'keu, or as he was called by the Bastaards and Dutch, Baardman the elder. 'Kwaha,N who was a petty captain of his tribe, says that although Ow'ku'ru'keu, who was his mother's uncle, was a true Bushman, he was a big man and fat. He and different members of his family had obtained the sobriquet of Baardman, or the bearded man, on account of a marked peculiarity which they possessed. They were not only, like the other Bushmen of their tribe, short and well-built, but they had thick heavy beards and large moustaches, which marked them at once from the ordinary Bushmen, whose faces, as a rule, are destitute of any such hirsute appendages ; and which in this case arose in all probability from some intermixture of blood.

His great place or cave was lower down the Caledon than that of 'Kwaha, a little above its junction with the 'Nu 'Gariep. The cave, or as it might be called from the beauty and number of its paintings, the palace-cave of his father, however, was the one which from its symbolic figure was termed the Cave of the Hippopotamus, in the rocky gorge or ravine running to the Orange river on the farm Lichtenstein.

Notes: 'Kwaha informed Mr. C. S. Orpen that his father was a Ghona Hottentot, who was born at the Sea-cow river, in the district of Colesberg, and therefore in the territory of 'Na'na'kow, the last chief of the Tooverberg. His mother, whose name was Candass 'Khou'kuha, belonged to a clan living in the Kraamberg, near the present Aliwal North, and was a niece of Ow'ku'ru'keu. The influence therefore of this chief extended to the left bank of the 'Nu Gariep. 'Kwaha was born in a cave on the right side of the Caledon, opposite Tweefontein, and a little distance above the junction of this river with the 'Nu Gariep. 'Kwaha was a young man, and had not taken a wife, when the first missionary came to T'kout'koo, now Bethulie. He was known by the name of Aerk, and was followed by Mr. Kolbe.

Ow'ku'ru'keu, although he did not live there himself, was proud of this grand representation of the large charging hippopotamus as well as the other paintings which adorned the home of his fathers. He was already a very old man in 1839, when he was first met by one of the voortrekkers named David Swanepoel,N to whom he frequently boasted of the beautiful paintings which ornamented the wall of the great place of his father, saying that when he had seen them he would be able to say that he had seen paintings. In those days all the rivers abounded with hippopotami, and troops of elephants were found in every kloof and near every vlei, which extended, in some parts, in great chains of reed-fringed pools for miles in the hollows of the vast plains.

Notes: David Swanepoel, an old farmer of considerable intelligence, was one of those who in the early days were in the habit of crossing the Orange river for the purpose of hunting, when the Bushmen were still in undisturbed possession of the country.

Ow'Ku'ru'keu was always desirous of maintaining peace with his neighbours. The number of his subjects was considerable, and 'Kwaha affirmed that he was loved very much by them and always gave advice towards peace. Living so near the banks of large rivers, these people were great and successful fishermen. The voortrekkers termed them Friendly Bushmen, but their peaceful disposition did not save them ; the tribe was broken up by the intruders, and they were dispossessed of their land.

Ow'ku'ru'keu escaped the dismemberment of his tribe caused by the intrusion of the Boer squatters into the country originally occupied by his people, yet, although he abandoned the place himself, a small clan still clung to the grand retreat of their ancestors in the Lichtenstein gorge ; but their end was a tragical one. They fell, together with Knecht Windvogel and his tribe, by the treachery of a notorious and still more infamous freebooter, called Danster by the Dutch. His vindictiveness was directed against Windvogel and his people, when the Bushmen from Lichtenstein accompanying them fell likewise into the snare.

What the cause of the offence was is not known, but having resolved upon his diabolical scheme, he gave a grand feast and beer-drinking for the express purpose of entrapping these people, towards whom he had always previously expressed great friendship. He sent therefore an invitation to them, informing them that on a certain day he intended to give this great feast, desiring them to be present. Not having the slightest suspicion of any sinister design, the proffered hospitality was accepted without hesitation ; and on the appointed day the whole of both the clans attended. Their host was lavish both in demonstrations of friendship and in supplies of beer.

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Not suspecting the least evil or danger, they gave themselves up to conviviality and the indulgences of the banquet ; feasting and dancing were the order of the day, but when his too confident guests, whom he plied steadily for that purpose, were muddled with the heavy potations or lying helpless with the intoxication which followed, suddenly, without notice, at a given signal — a shrill whistle — the entertainers with assagai and shield sprang upon their unsuspecting victims, and murdered men, women, and children without mercy. Not a soul escaped !

Ow'ku'ru'keu survived until the year 1860, and although at that time he was in extreme old age, he was still energetic and active. He then occupied a small kraal with his wives and a few of his sons, near the junction of the Riet and Modder rivers, on a farm in the possession of one Joubert. His eldest son, Baardman the younger, whom he had not seen for some fifty years, he had sold for three she-goats to a wandering hunter named Hans Pretorius, who, according to Bushman tradition, was the first Boer that ever crossed the Orange river.

This fact was corroborated in the following manner : In 1860 the locality above mentioned was visited by Mr. Jan Wessels, who saw the old Bushman captain there. Mr. Wessels had with him at the time a Bushman who had been a number of years in his service. This man was about sixty years of age, and also possessed a thick bushy beard and moustache. He was called Baardman the younger, and had always declared himself to be a son of the great Bushman captain Baardman, who had some fifty years before sold him to a Boer. Since that time he had never seen his father, but had always remained in the service of the Boers, one of whom he had accompanied to Natal.

Long as the intervening time had been since the parent and child had seen each other, the younger Baardman immediately recognised and pointed out his father, and went up and accosted him. So little had the old man aged, that there appeared to be hardly any difference between them. The meeting was a very cool one, and the son immediately upbraided his father, charged him with having sold him to the Boers, and demanded as a matter of right and justice the same number of ewe goats as his progenitor had obtained by selling him. After some altercation, the parent agreed to hand over to his descendant the spoil he had obtained for him. This was accordingly done, and they parted never to meet again.

The date of old Ow'ku'ru'keu's death is unrecorded ; but the son still continued, as he had always done before, whenever slightly elevated, to proclaim the extent of his father's former dominions, his numerous subjects, and the power which he possessed as one of the greatest Bushman captains of the 'Nu 'Gariep. In his later years' he added to his former declarations that as soon as he possessed the means he would go to Victoria and show her how unjustly he and his father had been dispossessed of their lands. He died about 1875 in Rouxville, at an advanced age, being last in the service of Mr. J . C. Chase, of that town ; and thus perished the last representative of the great chiefs of the Bushmen of the 'Nu 'Gariep.

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The Bushmen of the Genadeberg and the Mountains around Champagne.

The caves and fastnesses of these mountains formed the strongholds of a very powerful and numerous tribe, or rather group of tribes, as there were a number of outstations which were occupied by smaller clans, but who acknowledged the paramount authority of the chief of the great cave in Poshuli's Hoek. They for a long time maintained their independence, and kept the country round them clear of intruders. Beyond this bare fact, very few traditions have been preserved regarding them, with the exception of a disaster which befell them and the story of the final annihilation of their tribe.

The circumstances of the latter we shall detail when we speak of the Bushman struggle for existence ; the former, however, which forms a portion of their earlier history, occurred at the time when a number of emigrant Kaffirs belonging to the coast tribes attempted to settle in portions of the country afterwards taken possession of by some of the Bakuena clans. This was about 1806-12, when the latter were still north of the Intaba e Muthlope, or the Wittebergen of the Orange Free State. Upon these Kaffir intruders the Genadeberg Bushmen made a foray. They succeeded in capturing a number of cattle, and not only kept their pursuers at bay, but beat back the large body of Kaffirs that followed them. These, finding out the direction the Bushmen were likely to take, dispatched a party by short footpaths to waylay them near a nek on the farm now called Hoogeland.

Here they succeeded in concealing themselves among the reeds and grass on either side of the pass. The Bushmen, imagining that in defeating the body which had pursued them all chance of further danger was at an end, approached the spot just as evening was closing in, carelessly and with gleeful confidence driving their captured spoil before them. Before they were aware of it, however, the Kaffirs were upon them, and knowing that the Bushmen's arrows were nearly expended during the day's fight, rushed in upon them, dashing out their brains with knobkerries or clubs, before the latter, who were taken completely by surprise, had time to make any defence. Very few escaped, and the Kaffirs returned in triumph to their kraals with the recaptured cattle.

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The Bushmen of the ‘Kouwe (the Mountain) or Jammerberg.

This isolated range formed another of the great centres around which a considerable number of Bushman clans congregated ; but as usual, except the fact that they once existed, and that traces of many of their paintings are still to be found in its caves and rock-shelters, little has been preserved of their history.

The name of the last great or paramount chief was 'Co-ro-ko or 'Koroko, the uncle of 'Kou'ke. He was termed the chief of the 'Kouwe, or the Mountain. There were secondary chiefs under him : Palare, who occupied the caves in the ravine of the mountain near Ramanape's kraals, and Ma'khema, the chief of those in a deep gorge in the range towards the poort leading to Hermon mission station ; besides petty captains or the heads of detached caves. Another powerful Bushman captain, named Ma'kla, inhabited the Spitzkop in Basutoland, opposite Leeuw River.

'Kou'ke stated that all the men of these tribes were shot without mercy by the different commandos that came to attack them. When the writer was trying to persuade her and her husband to accompany him on his travels for a short time, that he might have an opportunity of learning more of their history, she said : "Do you see where the mountain comes down to the river ? " pointing to where its steep shoulder formed the left bank of the Caledon, in the Jammerberg Poort. " There," she continued, " were all the best of our tribe shot down ; there all our brave men's bones were left in a heap : my captain's, my brothers', and those of every friend that I had. Do you think I could live in the land of the men who did me that evil ? No ! not for a single night would I sleep on their accursed ground ! "

Her reasons were unanswerable. She departed, and the opportunity to obtain their unrecorded history was lost.

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The Bushmen of Makwatling or Koranaberg.

This grand old mountain with its table-topped precipitous crown, its steep and rocky gorges, afforded a home and secure retreat for a powerful group of tribes for unknown generations ; yet, notwithstanding this acknowledged fact, the writer when visiting the locality was unable to learn the name of a single one of their great chiefs. They were still, however, very numerous, and held possession of their caves up to the time of the last Free State and Basutu war.

At that time they were attacked by a commando under Commandants Fick and Dreyer, and although rifles, hand-grenades, and cannon were employed against them, — the marks of bullets and cannon shot are still to be seen round some of their shelters, attesting the vigour with which the siege was prosecuted, — they were able to keep their enemies at bay, and forced them to retire without dislodging them from their strongholds in the mountain. The besiegers, however, succeeded in killing a number of Bushmen who held advanced positions, although they defended themselves with desperation to the very last.

During these operations an incident occurred, which was related to the writer by a Korana who was an eye-witness of it, and which illustrates in a marked manner the intrepid daring so frequently displayed by men of the Bushman race. A large patrol had just returned to camp. It was towards evening, and having knee-haltered their horses, they turned them out to graze in the neighbourhood, at about one hundred yards distance.

Here, without the least indication of his presence, a solitary Bushman was lying concealed among the long grass, over which but a few minutes before the patrol must have ridden, but where he had well hidden himself beneath the spreading tuft with which he had disguised himself. He had evidently placed himself there to spy out the position and movements of the people in the camp.

Without being noticed, he worked himself among the horses, and after selecting one, fastened a thong of leather round one of its fore legs, and then by slowly moving along on his belly, he gradually led it off some short distance from the others, hoping by this means to get it sufficiently far to be able to mount it with impunity. After a time the owner of the horse, seeing what appeared to him to be his horse straying away, ran after it to turn it, shouting to it as he ran.

The horse, now becoming alarmed, struggled to free himself ; but the Bushman, still concealed, held on with a tenacious grip. The horse's terror increased, and struggling more fiercely, he sprang round and round, plunging and snorting, until at last with a more desperate effort than before he reared over, and with the sudden jerk swung the persistent Bushman into the air at the end of the thong, while the pursuing Boer was astonished at the apparition of a great tuft of grass with the arms, body, and legs of a Bushman attached, flying round as if in an infernal waltz with the maddened horse.

Seeing at last all chance of success had gone, the Bushman relinquished his hold, with a bound sped away like a racer, and before any alarm could be given placed a safer distance between himself and the camp of his enemies. Before disappearing, he turned to give a last look at those who were now in pursuit of him, and with upraised hand and bitter voice he cursed them as the destroyers and ruin of his country.

Upon the retreat of the commando, the Bushmen, after their dauntless resistance to the fearful odds brought against them, determined to abandon for ever the time-honoured strongholds of their forefathers. They evacuated them in a body, and withdrew unobserved and safely to the most rugged parts of the Malutis. Here some years afterwards they were again attacked, but on this occasion by the Baputi, under their chief Mogorosi, or as he was afterwards called, Morosi, and in the conflicts which ensued the tribe was annihilated. Most of the men were either shot or assagaied, whilst all the women and girls were made captive and became the wives or concubines of the victors.

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The Bushmen of Di-tse-thlong or Platberg on the Caledon.

These mountains seem to have formed a species of nucleus, around which a number of Bushman clans congregated, over whom one chief was acknowledged as paramount, although the subsidiary captains exercised a large amount of independent authority over their respective hordes. Upon all occasions affecting the common weal, or in times of public danger, they at once acted in union, submitting to the command of the great chief of the mountain.

The head or palace-cave of the Di-tse-thlong Bushmen was the great cavern among the domed rocks of the mountain opposite Tennant's Kop. Its walls were at one time covered with paintings, depicting the history of the aboriginal inhabitants of the mountain, their manners, and customs ; but these, alas ! have now been destroyed by the goats and cattle of the Basutu and the Boers, who have turned the ancestral abode of the Bushmen into a cattle and sheep kraal.

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The name of the last great Bushman captain of the mountain, who lived in this cave, was 'Kabasisi. The informant of the writer was a half-caste Mosutu belonging to the clan of the petty Basutu captain Ramanape. He stated that his grandfather, whose name was Rama'kale, was a solitary fugitive who sought refuge among these Bushmen long before any of the other Basutu were in this part of the country. 'Kabasisi not only gave him shelter, but also Sile'gou, his daughter, to wife. Rama'kale lived under this captain all his life, and all his children, among whom was the father of the narrator, were born in this cave. This was long before Moshesh's time, and when Bushmen alone occupied all the land.

The Bushman chief was very old at the time, and died a few years afterwards in a small cave in a neighbouring ravine. Many years after this, long after his father had grown up to manhood, and these Bushmen had acquired a few cattle, they were attacked by Moselekatze's people, when some of the inhabitants of the cave fell under the assagais of the invaders, and the remainder fled towards Kopje Alleen, in the great central plains towards the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal, where his grandfather died. His father afterwards returned to the old cave, and he and several other children were born there. Here they all remained in right of their father's descent until they were driven out by the Boers in the last Basutu war.

'Koroklou was the last great chief of the Bushmen of the Middle Veld, near Kopje Alleen. After many of them had been shot and their children seized and sold to the Boers as slaves, and the Boers themselves began to take possession of the land, he left the open country and sought refuge in the Jammerberg, where he was captured by the last commando sent against the Bushmen of the 'Kouwe, and carried to Bloemfontein, where he was kept as a kind of state prisoner on parole, and was still living there in 1877.

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The Bushmen of the 'Koesberg.

Traces of Bushman occupation are to be found on every side of this extensive mountain and its outlying branches. Several large caves and rock-shelters, such as those of Tienfontein Nek to the east, Knecht's Kloof on the south, and Brakfontein on the west, are illustrations of this. There were also several important caves under the precipices of the neighbouring Matlakeng, Moolman's Hoek, and other places, showing that at one time the whole of this part of the country was densely populated with Bushmen.

Some of the great caves were adorned with innumerable paintings, of which a number were of remarkable excellence, showing that the captains or chiefs to whom they belonged were men of considerable rank and importance. The banks of every watercourse and pool in the surrounding country were fringed with pitfalls. This was especially the case in Devenaar's Spruit, where the remains of them are still to be seen.

No record has been preserved of any paramount chief who asserted sway over the entire district, and from the evidence of the caves it would appear not improbable that there were several great chiefs ruling over groups of clans in different parts of it. One of these was the head of the clan which inhabited the rock-shelter on Tienfontein Nek, before they were driven to seek a securer shelter in the more rugged and nearly inaccessible fastnesses of the mountain.

This chief, on account of his determined daring, was known among the Dutch squatters by the name of Kwaai Stuurman. Little else has been preserved of his career. Several of the fertile valleys surrounding the mountain were seized upon by some emigrant Amaxosa Kaffirs, while fugitives from the north, of Basutu origin, appropriated others in the same unceremonious manner. Hence the seeds of discord were thickly sown around the ancient abodes of the primitive inhabitants. These rival races lived in a state of continual hostility ; stragglers and wayfarers were waylaid, robbed, and murdered.

During the early days of this Kaffir intrusion into the Bushman hunting grounds, a constant series of skirmishing and fighting, of robbery and murder, went on, not only with the Bushmen, the original inhabitants of the mountain, but between the petty robber chiefs who had located themselves in its vicinity. The law of might was the law of right, and no one retained his property longer than he had the power of defending it successfully. Any unhappy native, not allied to one or other of the swarthy bandits, who had the misfortune to possess a small herd of cattle, was sure sooner or later to fall a victim to the lawless rapine and violence that was rampant throughout the country.

As an example of this, a fugitive Fingo, who obtained the name of Knecht, established his kraal, by permission of the Bushman captain of the great cave in the precipitous glen of Knecht's Kloof — the cave of the White Hippopotamus — near the mouth of the ravine. He had not been long there, however, before he found his huts set on fire in the night and his cattle driven off by a party of these marauders, who, not satisfied with this, massacred the unfortunate Knecht and all his family in cold blood, as they attempted to escape, or threw them back into the flames to meet an equally terrible death. In the morning, when day broke, pools of blood and the charred ruins of the dwellings alone remained to mark the spot, and thus it was that the locality obtained the name of Knecht's Kloof.

Besides these there were several other Bushman tribes, such as those of the Mogokare and Bushmansberg, but, although almost every rock shelter contains the remains of their paintings, proving how numerous they must once have been, nothing has been preserved of their history except that most of them were shot down by the sons and grandsons of the men who were so active in the extermination of the Bushman hordes of the Karoo, the Tooverberg, and the Northern Plains.

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The Bushmen of the Upper Modder River and Rhenoster Spruit.

At one time a powerful tribe inhabited the ridges above the junction of these streams, near a place called Keerom. These Bushmen made a raid upon some of the Batlapin who had migrated towards the Vaal river. The latter determined not only to recapture the cattle, but to revenge themselves by following up and destroying the entire horde that had robbed them- A large party sent in pursuit of the Bushmen for this purpose arrived at the ravine in which their stronghold was situated.

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The Bushmen, however, were prepared for them. A few of these wily hunters, intended as a decoy, took up a conspicuous position at the head of it with some of the cattle ; the main body, however, had in the meantime thickly lined the rocks on either side of the gorge, where they were entirely hidden from the view of the advancing Kaffirs, while another strong party concealed themselves in the long grass around the mouth of the valley, and closed up its entrance as soon as the unsuspecting Kaffirs were sufficiently within the toils which had been laid for them.

It was not until they were well entangled in this cul-de-sac that they discovered, when too late, the manner in which they were entrapped. Assailed by flights of arrows from every side, in flank, in front, and rear, a panic seized them ; they made no attempt at defence or resistance, but merely in desperation cut away pieces of flesh from their bodies wherever the poisoned barbs fixed themselves. There was scarcely one of them who was not hit in several places, and many bled quickly to death from the ghastly wounds they thus inflicted upon themselves.

Only one or two of the entire party managed to burst through the encircling lines unscathed ; all the rest perished in the fatal glen. This desperate affair was remembered by the Bushmen as " the Battle of Blood," from the frightful quantity that was shed by the self immolation of their panic-stricken enemies. The informant of the writer was a youth at the time, and was within a mile or two of the spot when it occurred.

When first examining some of the Bushman paintings representing battle scenes between themselves and Kaffirs who had invaded their country, the quantity of blood flowing from the wounds appeared somewhat exaggerated ; but this the writer discovered from facts similar to that just related, was not the case, as it appears from all native evidence that the Kaffirs and Basutu in their encounters with the Bushmen were almost universally in the habit of excising the piece of flesh containing the poisoned barb of the arrow, cutting through without hesitation any vessels or sinews in the neighbourhood of the wound ; and thus numbers, in the desperate hope of saving their lives, inflicted such terrible wounds upon themselves that they bled to death before any effort could be made to stanch it.

Thus it was that whenever any combat took place, numbers of the Kaffir warriors were seen covered with streams of their own blood, while great pools of it were found every here and there saturating the ground, thus also proving that the observant Bushman artists were in this respect, as in many others, true to nature.

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The Bushmen of the Washbank and Wittebergen, Cape Colony.

Many caves are to be found in this mountainous region, several of them of immense size. In some of these the large amount of rock surface adapted for painting enabled the native artists to revel in the exhibition of their talent. Thousands of groups once adorned their walls, which have been since their expulsion wantonly defaced by the so-called civilised intruders, There is every evidence that at one time densely populated centres were sprinkled through the whole of these mountain glens, where, whilst the tribes remained in their undisturbed state, both game and fish abounded. This was notably the case in the valleys of the Washbank, along the tortuous and precipitous course of the Kraai river and its branches, in New England and the present district of Herschel.

But if the extent and number of the caves and paintings contained in them make known the numerous clans which once occupied these picturesque glens, and the surprising degree of excellence at which some of their leading artists arrived, so also do these spots proclaim in an equally unmistakable manner the tragic fate which befell their former inhabitants ; they tell us but too plainly of the infernal storm of lead which was poured in upon them by their vindictive and remorseless pursuers.

The sides of the great cave of the White Rhinoceros and Serpent, in a rocky ravine on the right bank of the Washbank Spruit, are so thickly bespattered with hundreds of the bullet marks of their assailants, that one could almost write an account of its siege and point out where in their desperate struggle the intrepid defenders were forced back from point to point, where they from time to time turned at bay in their attempts to keep back their enemies, and where, behind a great heap of piled rocks at the end of the cave, they turned for the last time, overpowered but unsubdued, and resolutely continued the conflict until the shout and the turmoil closed with the final discharge of the echoing musketry, in the silence of death.

It was considered that when a Boer or Mosutu, armed only with the old-fashioned flint firelock, met a Bushman in single combat, his chance of success, or even of escape, was not very great. In such a case there was no possibility of obtaining a steady aim, as the Bushman always kept in a state of rapid movement, jumping and springing from side to side, now here, now there, in a most uncertain manner, but always advancing, and as soon as a ball was fired at him, knowing that his opponent's gun was empty, he ran in upon him and shot him, almost at close quarters. One Boer, however, is said to have possessed such coolness that when he found himself face to face with a Bushman, he drew his ramrod, and with surprising dexterity was able to parry every shaft that was sent at him, until he came within a few paces, when no chance of a mis-shot could exist.

In the attacks of the Boer commandos upon the Bushman caves, some of the most daring of the invading force would advance upon the stronghold, under cover of rudely extemporised shields, such as a few thick branches plaited together, or one of their great duffel coats, such as were then in fashion with them, or else a closely woven Kaffir mat.

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Their mode of attack used to be as follows : three or four of their best marksmen were told off, who took up the most commanding position they could obtain, in order to cover the advance of the storming party, when the greater part of the force kept up a continuous fire from a more respectful distance.

Thick branches were obtained, where available, and plaited in such a way that the arrows became entangled in them or glanced off ; when these were not to be had, their great duffel coats were stretched on two cross sticks, one of which was thrust through the sleeves, thus keeping them extended as widely as possible ; arrows striking these would drive their points into the thick material of which they were composed, and then hang harmlessly. Such a shield, which gave shelter to a couple of men, would frequently be struck twenty or thirty times during the advance.

Where Kaffir mats were employed, a large one was extended upon sticks, and carried carefully forward, while several marksmen advanced under the cover. In this case, owing to the pliancy of the rushes of which the mat was made, most of the arrows rebounded on the outer side ; a few would occasionally penetrate the shield, but it was a rare occurrence that one burst through with sufficient force to do any harm.

An advance of this kind, over the rugged ground that had generally to be traversed, was one which was not only made with great caution, but considerable slowness also. In the meantime, when any of the Bushmen exposed themselves too much in taking aim at their advancing enemies, they generally fell under the bullets of those who had been told off for the express purpose.

But even with all their precaution, the attack sometimes ended in the confusion and flight of the Boers. When successful, however, the slow advance continued until the Bushmen's arrows were expended ; then, when they were no longer able to defend themselves for want of weapons, a rush was made, and they were shot down indiscriminately, some of the women and children occasionally escaping or being made captives.

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THE BUSHMEN OF THE EASTERN PROVINCE OF THE CAPE COLONY


Under this title we shall notice the groups along the more northern portion of the eastern frontier, of which any recollection has been preserved. We have already mentioned those of the Bamboesberg and the Tarka and the old Tambuki tribe of Bushmen which once occupied the valley of the Tsomo and the land farther to the eastward ; those of the Great Winterberg and the Konap we shall have occasion to treat of in a later portion of our investigation.

Most of the names of the great captains of these tribes, who were certainly the patriotic defenders of their country, have long since been lost sight of. Even in the traditions which have survived of a few, most of them are known only by the names given to them by the Boers, and the writer could only discover two or three whose native names have been preserved.

One of the former class was Lynx, the chief of the Bamboesberg. Another was Koegel-man, alias Koegel-been, who had his headquarters among the rocky ledges of a hill in the Queenstown district, now named Koegel-been's Kop after him ; and it was in defending this stronghold that he received the wound — a bullet lodging in his leg, from which it could not be extracted — which gave him the name he subsequently bore. Little is now known of him, except that he offered a desperate resistance to the Abatembu and Boers who invaded his country.

Another captain who rendered himself conspicuous was called Windvogel. He was chief of the Bushmen around the mountain which was named Windvogelberg after him, in the same district. His territory extended from the Wa'cu, or Wa-'ku, to the Thorn river on the Bontebok flats.

Of the numerous and powerful tribes which once inhabited the Stormberg and neighbouring ranges, the writer was not able to discover the trace of a single name having survived, although in their day they were as determined and daring in their resistance to the encroachments of the stronger races as their co-patriots who were spread over the territory now forming the Free State and the basin of the Orange river and its tributaries, with regard to whom a number of traditions might be obtained, could some of the ancient survivors be questioned upon the subject.

Mada'kane, one whose native name has escaped oblivion, was chief of the Bushman tribe inhabiting the country from the Zwart Kei Poort below Tylden to the Gwatyu and Indwe, and along the valley of the 'Neiba, or Lower Zwart Kei, to a little below its junction with the 'Ca'cadu or White Kei. This and the one under Madura, of which we shall speak presently, were considered to be, at one time, the most powerful tribes in this part of South Africa.

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The last retreat and stronghold of Mada'kane was in an almost inaccessible glen, still bearing his name, about the junction of the two Keis. The surrounding country is of the most difficult character. One footpath leading to it, along which the writer rode when he visited the spot in 1869, was along a kind of elevated backbone, nearly half a mile long and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards in width, above a precipice of some five hundred feet on the one hand, while one, of at least eight hundred feet, with the 'Neiba rushing over the rocks at its foot, was on the other.

An old brother of Mada'kane, with two of his wives and their children, and one or two followers, still hid themselves among the precipices, and although several messengers were sent to them, nothing would induce the old man to grant the visitor an interview. One of his excuses was that if he did so, the man in the leather jacket (the writer), who visited all their houses and copied their paintings, would be asking him questions, when the questioner would become as wise as himself.

The resident Kaffirs of these deep glens were, to add to the difficulties of the journey, angry with the writer's Kaffir guides for bringing a white man to examine the secret recesses of their fastnesses, which they termed their hidden war-paths, that during the wars of 1835, 1846, and 1850 had afforded a secure retreat for all their women, children, and captured cattle, and that no colonial force had ever attempted to enter, declaring that the writer was the first European who had ventured to penetrate so far into this mysterious region.

Every obstacle was thrown in the way of the exploring party, almost impassable roads were pointed out to them. They had to camp out under a rock-shelter, the sides of which were barricaded with fallen trees, and lest the horses should be seized in the night by the irate natives, who had threatened to dismount the unwelcome intruders, they were securely fastened.

Two great fires were made in front, and with the aid of a watchful and faithful dog, which had fortunately accompanied them, they passed the night without further molestation, although the loud voices of the Kaffirs in a kraal, about a quarter of a mile distant, were heard the greater part of it. Early the next morning they were again in the saddle, and after climbing, and occasionally driving the horses in front of them for several hours, they arrived at Mada'kane's last retreat. Here he died, amid his native rocky glens, but whether of wounds or of old age, as he must have been a very old man at the time, the writer was not able to learn.

His brother 'Gcu-wa, the old Bushman already mentioned, was the painter of the family, and in 1869 still carried two or three of his horn paint-pots swung at his belt. He was the artist who painted the representation of a Boer commando, which adorned the wall of his brother's rock-shelter, and it was said that it was intended to commemorate the first attack the Boers ever made upon their tribe.

The palace cave of the Python, on the bank of the 'Neiba, belonged to a minor chief named Madolo, who acknowledged the supremacy of Mada'kane. Madolo was a name given to this chief by the invading Kaffirs, and signified Knees. Up to the last days of the undisturbed rule of the Bushmen, all the deep pools of the surrounding rivers swarmed with hippopotami. The Kaffirs not only drove out the greater number of the Bushmen from the more open country, but soon exterminated the great pachyderms which had lived in the rivers.

The last hippopotamus of the 'Neiba was killed in the large pool opposite Madolo's cave. The once powerful and formidable tribe of Mada'kane, attacked on the one hand by the intruding Abatembu and Amaxosa Kaffirs, and subsequently by Boer commandos on the other, was at last reduced to a miserable remnant, consisting of the old man 'Gcu-wa, the brother of Mada'kane, a younger man, a nephew of the same chief, three women, and about five little children.

These unfortunates never ventured into the open country, but always remained in the wildest parts of the river valleys, migrating from spot to spot, according to the seasons, sustaining a precarious subsistence by eel-fishing, digging roots, and obtaining honey from the various krantz nests, inaccessible to any men less nimble than themselves.

Even after they had been conquered and nearly destroyed by the intruding Kaffirs, the survivors looked upon these rock nests as their peculiar and rightful property, and not only jealously guarded any interference with them, but promptly revenged themselves upon the kraals of those who were suspected of tampering with their contents. So certain was retaliation to follow any such misdemeanour that the Kaffirs at last looked upon these nests with considerable dread, and would neither touch them themselves nor allow any one else to do so upon any pretext whatever.

Madura, or Madoor as he was styled by the colonists, to whom we have before alluded, was the chief of the second powerful tribe living on this portion of the border. He was the great chief of the Bushman clans in the country around the Klipplaats and Upper Zwart Kei rivers. His great cave was originally a few miles from the present village of Whittlesea, in the Division of Queenstown.

Here he was living when he was visited by Dr. Van der Kemp ; and there was at one time a painting in it, which Madura used to state was the likeness of this zealous but eccentric missionary. It had the figure of a 'Nadro close behind it, looking very much like the mediaeval conception of the devil, which made some of the colonists believe that Madura's artist had attempted to depict not only the worthy missionary, but also the evil being whom he had attempted to introduce to their notice.

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About the time of, or shortly after, the Kaffir war of 1835 he retired from the more immediate border, and located himself near the spot afterwards called Bushman school, near Glen Grey, in the same division. Here, about 1839, a mission was established, and hence the name of Bushman school. When visited by Mr. Backhouse, he said that he had been brought up among the mountains, that he had not seen his mother for a long time, although he hoped that she was still living, if she had not been devoured by the great serpent, or by the tigers of the mountains.

That the reptile to which Madura alluded was not a mythical idea of the native mind is certain, and it is equally certain that at no distant period pythons of considerable size were not uncommon in the valley of the 'Neiba, or Zwart Kei, as is proved not only by the traditions of the natives respecting them, but by the accurate Bushman drawing in the cave of the Python ; and as a coincidence there is a representation of this great serpent, some seven feet long, in one of Madura's rock-shelters on the Klipplaats.

The great serpent spoken of by the natives of South Africa is supposed by some to have been extinct in the Cape Colony for a long period, but thirty or forty years ago the Kaffirs declared that it was then to be met with in some of the rocky and woody glens towards the coast, and in 1849 the writer himself saw one some seven or eight miles from Grahamstown, near Broekhuisen's Poort, which was from fifteen to eighteen feet in length, and much thicker than a man's arm. There are several other well-authenticated instances of this reptile having been met with since 1820, the date of the arrival of the British settlers.

Not only had the Kaffirs of the coast tribes a superstitious reverence for it, allowing no one to kill it under pain of death, but some of the old Hottentots also imagined that it possessed miraculous and magic powers.

In 1849 Madura's station consisted of a few huts and a small chapel. In the war of 1846 he took part with the government against the Abatembu and Amaxosa Kaffirs. In 1849 he had still about three hundred men under his jurisdiction, including Bushmen, Hottentots, Fingos, and several others who had fled to him for an asylum from adjacent tribes, on account of charges of witchcraft brought against them by their own people. There were still occasional invasions and occupations of his country by the tribes in his vicinity, for the sake of the grass and water found there. He then appeared to be about sixty years of age, and would consequently have been born about 1789. His people all cut off the first joint of the third finger of the right hand.

The regulations enforced upon this chief certainly tended, in no inconsiderable degree, to accelerate the extinction of his tribe, and to prevent, by the imposition of a most unreasonable impost, any chance of their improvement.

His country was proclaimed to be within the bounds of the Cape Colony. He pleaded that the land belonged to his forefathers, and that the Tembus were intruders who had forcibly taken possession of a large portion of it. His remonstrances were unavailing, his country was absorbed, without the slightest reservation being made for the ancient owners, and instead of encouragement to induce them to settle down to the peaceful occupations of quiet citizens, a demand of one pound a year was made upon the head of each family as a quitrent !

They were not a conquered people, they were living in a country which, as Madura said, had belonged to Bushmen from time immemorial. They had not made war upon the Colony as the frontier tribes of Kaffirs had done, on the contrary they had done good service in defence of colonial territory and in retaking cattle and other stock which had been captured by the enemy, and now they were rewarded for those services, in what way let the old chief Madura describe.

He said the land was the land of his fathers, and that now, although he and his people had served the government for three years, they were told they must pay for living upon it ! Where was the money to come from ?

Such a thing, if forced upon them, must entirely ruin them. These reasonable representations met with no response, and this wrong certainly formed the first step towards the final expulsion of himself and his people from a territory which had descended to them from their remote ancestors. Madura's case appears a particularly hard one. A demand was made, for the miserable allotment of land marked out for himself and his followers, of a sum which was equivalent to three hundred pounds per annum, being at the rate of one pound for each of his male followers. Had the same quantity of land been granted to a farmer, the sum would not have exceeded fifty pounds.

About the time of the Kaffir war of 1850 he retreated from the Glen Grey portion of the country to a great cave on the banks of the 'Ca'cadu or White Kei, opposite the site of the present St. Mark's mission station. It might well have been termed the cave of the Springbok, from its symbolic painting, which consisted of a troop of about one hundred and fifty beautifully painted springboks. Here he was living when Archdeacon White established the mission at St. Mark's. In 1856, when the chief was about eighty years old, he again fell back with the shattered wreck of his once powerful tribe towards the fastnesses of the Drakensberg, since which time he has been lost sight of, and his ultimate fate is buried in oblivion.

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The Bushmen of the Zuurveld.

Before the first Dutch elephant hunters crossed the mountains that bound the long kloof, the inhabitants of the tract of country which they called the Zuurveld were numerous Bushman tribes, a number of clans of a mixed race called Ghonaqua, whose various sections showed different grades of intermixture according as the Kaffir, Hottentot, or Bushman element predominated, and a few straggling parties of fugitive Kaffirs, who seemed generally to fraternize with one or other of the different hordes of Ghonaquas. As we proceed with our investigation these points will be made perfectly clear, especially when we treat of the eastern advance of the early Dutch settlers, when we shall be able to clear up the mystery of the origin of the Ghonaquas.

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All the travellers of the last century are unanimous in stating that after passing the Gamtoos no other people were met with than Bushmen, Ghonaqua, and wandering or emigrant Kaffirs. If numerous Hottentot tribes ever existed there they had certainly most mysteriously disappeared before these travellers visited the country, without the aid of either Dutch oppression on the one hand or Kaffir intrusion on the other. Lieutenant Paterson, who travelled through it in 1779, is explicit on the subject, as he informs us that the Zuurveld was then called Bushmanland.

He says that when at the Zwartkops, he was overtaken by a Boer, an old German named Kock, who was on his way to this portion of Bushmanland, and who was well acquainted with the country and the manners of the natives. He therefore became a welcome companion, as the place where he lived lay in their way. Near the Koega they were visited by two Kaffirs, who very seldom ventured so far out of their own country.

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Several Boers had already in 1779 squatted near the Sunday river ; they were possessed of numerous herds of cattle, but seldom troubled themselves either to build houses or cultivate land. Jan Kock lived on a place called Sand Flat. This was then a portion of Bushmanland.

When Sparrman travelled through the country a few years previously, no Boers had attempted to settle in it, with the exception of one Gert Scheepers, who had located himself on the site of the present town of Uitenhage. The only Europeans who then visited it came for the ostensible purpose of elephant hunting, and also, according to the evidence obtained by Sparrman, to indulge in their old and favourite amusement of kidnapping Bushman children whenever a favourable opportunity offered.

Thus at the Lower Sunday river, or t'Nuka-t’Kamma, i.e. Grassy Water, three old Bushmen came to visit the travellers ; they distinguished themselves by the name " good Bushmen," probably from the circumstance of their grazing a few cattle and not living by rapine like others of their countrymen. They complained of the Boers having been with them, and having carried off all their young people, so that now they were left alone in their old age to look after themselves and their cattle. Sparrman also tells us that when other food failed these Zuurveld Bushmen, they lived on the gum arable from the mimosa for many days together.

In those days all the rivers and other watering places had Bushman names. Pitfalls excavated by them were frequently met with, while Sparrman procured Bushman guides at t'Nuka t 'Kamma to take him through the country. He gives us a number of names of various localities now known only by their modem colonial designations ; thus, 'Kensi 'kunni aati (let not the ugly drink here !) was that of the Little Bushman's river.

After passing the Bushman's river, they came to Muishond Kloof, near which was a valley with good water called t’Kur- t’keija-t’kei-t’kasibina ; leaving Assagai Bush and crossing Nieuwjaars Drift, they came to t’Kurekoi-t'Ku ; two hours from this they arrived at 'Quamma’ dacka, then passed the Little Fish river, and afterwards the t’Kau t'kay or Great Fish river.

The Zuurveld Bushmen in Sparrman's time appear from some cause to have congregated along the course of this last river, and especially towards its mouth, or the portion now called Lower Albany ; and thus formed a cordon of so formidable a character that the Kaffirs for a considerable time could not break through it in any large numbers. The gathering along this particular line may have been occasioned by a desire to remove as far as possible from the Boers on the west, with their kidnapping propensities, and from the Kaffirs, who were steadily crossing the Kei and occupying the country between that river and the Keiskama.

The last Bushman captain who ruled over this portion of the country was named 'Kohla, who was termed by the colonists Ruyter. In 1775 he had his great kraal near the mouth of the Great Fish river. Sparrman during his visit was able to collect a considerable amount of information about him, from which we are able to extract the following outline of the history of this chief. What his fathers were, whether he was one of their hereditary chiefs or a patriot leader who rose by his own energy and enterprise, is now lost, none of his earlier history having been recorded.

He was at one time in the service of a farmer in the Roggeveld, where, having a quarrel with a companion, he killed him, and then, apprehensive of the consequences, as according to the laws of the colony his certain fate would be the gallows, he fled from justice.

After a variety of adventures he arrived at length in the country near the Bushman's river. His principal home there-after was between this river and the t’Kau-t’Kay, or Great Fish river. Here, by his intrepidity, he was raised to the chieftainship of a horde of Bushmen. The cave paintings near Salem are probably the productions of the artists of this tribe. At the head of these people he subdued several other tribes, and afterwards made them take arms against the Kaffirs. He inspired his adherents with such confidence in his leadership that they never questioned any order which he issued, while the conquests he made supplied them with plunder.

The respective methods of fighting of the Kaffirs and Bushmen differed considerably. The Kaffirs used assagais, which they could not employ with any certain effect at a greater distance than twenty or thirty paces. Of these weapons they did not carry into the field more than three or four, so that they were soon disarmed in case their antagonists were bold and nimble enough to pick up these weapons as soon as the Kaffirs had hurled them.

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They used a shield of ox hide large enough to cover their bodies completely, on shrinking themselves into a smaller compass. When they were in actual engagement they shifted their bodies continually from one side to the other, so that they could not easily be hit, taking care all the time to keep their assagais in readiness to throw at any unguarded part of their antagonists.

The Bushmen, on the other hand, who were without shields, were more than a match for the Kaffirs in the open country as long as they could keep at a good distance by reason of their bows and poisoned arrows, which, although they did not immediately make so painful a wound as the assagai, were more dangerous in the end, and it was in consequence of this circumstance that 'Kohla's Bushmen beat the Kaffirs for so long a time.

While his daring rendered him formidable to the Kaffirs, he took care, by inflicting the punishment of death on his subjects for the least fault, or even on the suspicion of a fault, to exact, and for a considerable period to enjoy, the most servile submission and implicit obedience from the simple uncultivated mortals he had gathered together. He used frequently with his own hand to put to death one or more of these slavish vassals, and would immediately throw his javelin through the body of any of his attendants that hesitated, at his nod, to dispatch the man whom he had marked out as the victim of his revengeful and cruel disposition.

When the Christians reproached him with his barbarity and bloodthirstiness, he replied, " It was in a lucky hour when I conveyed myself out of your authority. You would have hanged me for having killed an antagonist, as if I had committed a crime, whereas to kill an enemy is reckoned a laudable and manly action."

To the colonists he always behaved as a true and faithful ally, and in return for the tobacco and other articles which they presented to him, used to help them to make slaves of such straggling Bushmen as did not live under his jurisdiction. By keeping the Kaffirs at a proper distance, he not only served his own turn, but was likewise extremely useful to the colonists. But, however cautious he was to maintain peace with his more powerful neighbours the Christians, yet when he was in the meridian of life and at the zenith of his power he received them with an uncommon degree of pride and arrogance, which they could not easily brook from a man they looked upon as a vagabond. He succeeded, however, in keeping up his importance with them as well as with his own people for many years.

But ultimately the despotic conduct and daring that had been the stepping stones by which he had made himself so famous and for some time so powerful and so much feared, led to his downfall. His subjects, weary of the ambition and severe discipline of their chief, took an opportunity of deserting him at a time when he was gallantly marching at their head against the Kaffirs. He was deserted almost in the very face of his enemies.

Being no longer so swift of foot as he had been in his youth, he was not able to make his escape, and was consequently taken prisoner, but being recognised as a chief, his life, according to Kaffir custom, was spared, and he was sent back to his people, yet not without menaces of having his eyes put out if he should rise against them in arms in future.

This misfortune and the salutary lesson given to him by his enemies were not so efficacious however as to divert his hostile intentions against the Kaffirs, as soon as he had collected together a number of his people. The recollection of the days of his former victories, when he had pushed his attacks upon them to the east- ward of the 'Kaisi-kamma, still inspired him. In 1776 he endeavoured to incite another petty Bushman chief against them, and had received from him promises of assistance as soon as he could get iron to head his arrows with and make the other necessary preparations.

Notwithstanding this proof of his indomitable resolution, many were apprehensive, and not without reason, that the old warrior and tyrant would meet his death in this expedition, which, tired of himself and his adverse fortune, he seemed to be in search of.

The tract of country situated near the mouth of the t’Kau- t'kay, or Great Fish river, was the situation which he preferred for his principal residence. In 1776, at the time of Sparrman's visit, he was old and infirm, and barely a director of some two hundred people. He was wont, at this time, to receive his Christian acquaintances in the most friendly manner, and with tears in his eyes to ask for tobacco, no longer by way of tribute, but as a present which he was willing to receive from their bounty.

In 1779 the old Bushman chief had fallen back from the advanced position he held near the mouth of the Great Fish river, in Sparrman's time, to near the Bushman's river, where Paterson found him. The fire of the old warrior was not yet altogether extinguished, he had still some two hundred Bushmen and Kaffirs in his service, and a few hours before Paterson's arrival he had fought against a number of Kaffirs, beaten them off the field, and taken a number of their cattle. The exact date of his death is not known.

According to custom he had appointed the youngest of his three sons to be heir to his possessions and chieftainship. None of them, however, inherited the father's talents and abilities in a sufficient degree to enable him to establish himself in the succession at his father's death.

In 1813 Mr. Campbell was visited during his stay at Bethelsdorp by Benedictus Platje Ruyter, who said that he lived a day's journey off. He was dressed in a short blue jacket and white trousers, and had a white lace epaulette on his right shoulder. He held in his hand a formidable staff, about six feet long, with a brass head on which were His Majesty's arms, presented to him by Government. He said that all that country and also the Zuurveld belonged to his grandfather, but they had been deprived of it by the Boers and Kaffirs. He complained bitterly also of the Boers for the cruelties they had perpetrated upon his countrymen.

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The decline of the power of the Bushman chief 'Kohla most decidedly marks an epoch in South African history with regard to the intrusion of the stronger races. With all his faults, he must ever be looked upon as the last great chief of the Coast Bushmen, the one who made the last expiring effort to maintain the independence of his race in that part of the ancient hunting grounds of his forefathers which bordered on the sea-coast ; and his name, as a consequence, is worthy of preservation in the history of the country.

True, he was a savage ; true, he committed many atrocities and lavishly shed the blood of his own people ; but for a time he strenuously endeavoured, and successfully, to beat back the wave of barbarism which on several occasions, since he gave up the struggle, has threatened to sweep the entire country from the Umzimvubu to the Cape. It was only when he disappeared from the scene that another and more terrible feature was given to the struggle which followed.

It was no longer a struggle between the advancing Kaffirs and the repelling Bushmen, for the latter, at least those of the Zuurveld, were numbered among the men of the past. The two great rival races, the black and the white, met for the first time in that portion of South Africa face to face, and from that moment it became, with little intermission, a continuous struggle between the bullet and the assagai, which even in the present day is not decided.

Along the coast the Bushmen were crushed ; and the Kaffir clans, after one or two weak and unsuccessful attempts to penetrate to the north-west, in the direction of De Bruyn's Hoogte, poured over the Great Fish river, when the Zuurveld became for upwards of a generation the battle-ground of the two intruding races. By some it has been asserted that the country above described was a portion of the possessions of the Hottentot race from time immemorial. This assertion is purely mythical. The Hottentot was not an aborigine.

It is true that broken tribes of them were found scattered through many parts of the eastern districts at the commencement of the present century, when they were first visited by missionaries, but they were driven there by the emigrant Boers. It is also true that a considerable number of them, who had managed to evade the thraldom of their hard taskmasters, were roaming over some portions of the country towards the close of the last century, leading the same kind of unsettled, nomadic, life as they and their forefathers had before done in the western districts, and as was their wont, not only plundering one another when occasion offered and making depredations upon the Dutch colonists who were gradually filling up the country and obtaining farms by the usual method of self- appropriation, but also making raids upon such of the Kaffirs as they thought they might be able to relieve of a few head of cattle with the least risk to themselves.

That the Hottentots were treated with great cruelty by many of the old colonists few will be prepared to deny, outrage begat outrage, and atrocity atrocity, but on the other hand many abhorred the treatment which these miserable people received, and did what was in their power to ameliorate the condition of compulsory servitude to which all those who lived within the pale of the law were reduced. It was thus that a considerable exodus of them occurred as soon as a door of escape was opened for them, but this was not until after the Bushmen of the Long Kloof mountains were subdued, many clans of them exterminated, and the remnant enslaved.

In 1775 Kabeljauw river was the last place to the eastward where Christians were permanently established, near the Gamtoos was a small kraal of natives under a captain named 'Kees ; but it seems open to question whether these were of pure Hottentot blood or not. In 1776 a small society of Gunjeman Hottentots was found on the Zwartkops, either on or in the immediate neighbourhood of the farm of Gert Scheepers.

The ancestors of these Hottentots at the time the Dutch first invaded this part of the continent inhabited the tract of country about Table Bay, and therefore in all probability were nearly connected with the 'Koraquas, the progenitors of the present Koranas. They were without any chief or captain, and lived on friendly terms with the farmer and most likely were in a state of semi-vassalage under him.

From this point to the banks of the t'Kau-t'Kay, or Fish river, as before pointed out, there were a few scattered kraals of Ghonaqua and Bushmen, and thus it seems certain that in the middle of last century no large Hottentot tribes existed in the country. Had this been the case, such close and accurate observers as Sparrman, who passed through it twice, and Paterson, who followed him, would doubtlessly have recorded the fact.

In favour of an earlier Hottentot occupation, it has been advanced that these natives make a sort of general declaration that the country was theirs. Such claims were afterwards set up for Waterboer, Moshesh, and others, to the exclusion of the aboriginal Bushman owners. Another argument brought forward has been that some of the leading captains being able to trace their lineage back several generations, they have been in possession of the land they occupy for at least that length of time.

The same reasoning has been adopted by some writers with regard to the proprietorship of areas of country occupied by some of the Kaffir and Basutu chiefs, but to state that because a man has a lengthened pedigree his remotest known ancestors must have been the owners of the soil occupied by him is an absurdity too transparent to need serious refutation. The writer, when he first entered upon this enquiry thirty years ago, never met an old Hottentot who did not assert that his forefathers came from the west, or the Cape.

In the year 1776 Baron Van Plettenberg, governor of the Cape Settlement, rescinded the order forbidding the inhabitants settling in portions of the country east of the Kabeljauw, and several Boers in consequence removed to the Sunday river in order to settle there, while some farmers trekked with their wives, children, and cattle into the 'Krake-kamma, on account of the government having given them permission to do so. Thus it was that the two streams of migration were already commencing to overlap. A small kraal of Kaffirs, the forerunners of the great host which was to follow, had even at this early stage penetrated as far to the west as the Zwartkops, and established themselves a short distance from Gert Scheepers.

The elements of future strife were therefore gathering, which at no distant period were to burst into a flame, whose violence caused for many years an immense amount of misery and suffering.

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THE STRUGGLE OF THE BUSHMEN FOR EXISTENCE


We have attempted to obtain a view of most of the leading groups of Bushman clans which once held possession of the country. Several have been omitted, such as those of the Langekloof, the Tarka, Great Winterberg, and Koonap, as it will be necessary to treat of these more fully when we come to speak of the eastern advance of the Dutch colonists and the later English occupation.

In the same manner we have deferred considering the breaking up of the clans of the Middle Veld of the present Orange Free State by the intrusion of the Koranas and other invading tribes. There were also a number of minor groups intervening between the larger ones which we have mentioned, but of which little now is known except that they once existed, and that most of them were shot down by those who seized their country, because they resented the unjustifiable wrong and attempted to resist.

Such was the fate of those who once inhabited the rocks of Thaba Nchu and the caves in the surrounding mountains. Harris, when passing through this country, found the slope of a hill near the present site of Bloemfontein besprinkled with the mouldering bones of Bushmen, and a few years ago there were numerous spots in the Free State which told the same melancholy tale of the fate of the aborigines.

These unhappy fugitives at last became so terrified at the sight of any human being that there were portions of the country where they concealed themselves so effectually that a traveller might pass through its length and breadth without seeing a single soul, or even, if he were not aware of the fact, suspecting that it was inhabited. Harris informs us that when he passed through the 'Kolong basin, once the home of a powerful group of tribes, such had become their general distrust of visitors that the males would never approach them, except when forced to do so, and then always evincing great trepidation, no object being more unwelcome to their sight than a troop of horsemen on the plain.

We shall now collect such evidence as is available to illustrate some of the closing scenes in the terrible drama in which they had to fill so important a part of the role in their struggle for existence, when they found the hand of every man was against them, when a civilised government sanctioned the policy of extermination, when the subjects of that government, fleeing from their own supposed wrongs, seized the vast country beyond the borders and there followed the example of their fathers, and acting up to their traditions forced the unfortunate Bushmen into the position of pirates of the desert.

As Moffat describes them, they ascended the mountain's brow, or peak, with an acuteness of sight superior perhaps to our common telescopes, and surveyed the plains beneath, either to discover game or cattle, or to watch the movements of those whose herds they had stolen. If danger approached, they ascended almost inaccessible cliffs, from which nothing but the rifle ball could dislodge them ; when closely pursued they would take refuge in dens and caves, in which their enemies have sometimes smothered scores to death, blocking up the entrance with brushwood, and setting it on fire.

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Such deeds as this, and the carrying off of their women and children into bondage, raised the bitterest feelings of revenge in their breasts, until they seemed at times animated with a desire to wreak their vengeance not only upon their relentless persecutors and oppressors, but upon every living thing belonging to them which fell into their hands. Thus when they had taken a troop of cattle, their first object was to escape to a rendezvous, a cave or overhanging precipice, or some sequestered spot, difficult of access to strangers for want of water.

As soon as they perceived any of the cattle too fatigued to proceed, they stabbed them ; and if the pursuers came within sight and there was the slightest possibility of their being overtaken, they would thrust their spears or arrows, if time would permit, into every animal in the troop. This habit, which obtained universally among these unfortunate people, exasperated their enemies to the last degree, and vengeance fell on every man, woman, and child, whenever they came within reach of their missiles.

It is somewhat surprising after the remorseless butchery and indiscriminate slaughter of the unhappy Bushmen, that their enemies should charge them with fighting " without conscience " ; yet the writer has heard numbers of the old voortrekkers express this opinion. Their conflicts with the farmers themselves had taught them this lesson so frequently, that in their wild and desperate struggles to maintain the birthright they had inherited from their fathers, and which, as we have seen, must have been in their possession from a very remote period, they neither showed nor expected mercy. Every race of man, savage or civilised, that came in contact with them, appropriated their land without a single pretext of justification, and waged a war of extermination against them as soon as they resisted or resented the wrong that was done to them.

The pastoral tribes of natives and colonial flock owners could not appreciate the feelings of attachment which those who lived by the chase alone had to their hunting-grounds, while the constant encroachments which were made upon them impressed the untutored minds of the hunter race with the idea that the whole world was arrayed against them. Their almost fierce love of independence, their almost equally unalterable determination to maintain and die in their primitive modes of life, utter contempt — at least of the majority of them — for all pastoral or agricultural pursuits, made them to be looked upon by all the larger and more robust of the African races as a species of wild animal which it was praiseworthy to exterminate whenever an opportunity offered.

But in this struggle for existence, their bitterest enemies, of whatever shade of colour they might be, were forced to make an unqualified acknowledgment of the courage and daring they so invariably exhibited. Even when surrounded and borne down by a host of enemies, the Bushman seldom or never asked for mercy from his hated foes. Wounded and bleeding as he might be, he continued obstinately fighting to the last. Shot through one arm, he would instantly use his knee or foot to enable him to draw his bow with the one remaining uninjured. If his last arrow was gone, he still struggled as best he might, until finding death remorselessly upon him, he hastened to cover his head that no enemy might see the expression of death agony upon his face !

Many instances of vengeance have been recorded against them, in which uncontrollable feelings of revenge have hurried them into the committal of terrible atrocities. One or two examples will suffice to show the nature of these. A considerable tribe of Bushmen once inhabited the rock-shelters which are found at the foot of the low precipices surrounding Bushman's Hoek, near Bastaards Drift, on the Noku Mogokare or Caledon river.

After the Boers had commenced settling in the country, one of them began to build a small house in the Hoek, and cultivate land about it. At first things went on quietly between the intruder and the old inhabitants, but after a time for some real or pretended depredations the caves were cleared, and their owners driven from the neighbourhood. Enraged at this ejectment, they formed a plan to revenge what they considered an unjustifiable intrusion into their ancient possessions. The house was attacked and set on fire in the night, all the older members were shot as they tried to escape from the burning building, while the younger children were thrown back into the flames. The ruined walls where this fearful tragedy was enacted are standing at the present day.

Many charges of acts of equal cruelty and revenge have been heaped upon this hunted race, some being of the most terrible description, such as the disembowelling of unfortunate women who have fallen into their hands and leaving them to die in the most frightful agonies. On one occasion they surprised a party of five, the wife and daughter of a Dutch farmer who had rendered himself obnoxious to them, and three native women, one of whom was a tamed Bushwoman, at a washing place, and treated them all in this horrible manner.

All the available evidence, however, with regard to the vindictiveness of the Bushmen proves that it was not a part of their natural character, but rather a developed feeling which gradually took possession of their breasts : it was the outcrop of desperation and despair.

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As the encroachments of the stronger races increased, the Bushman was kept in a perpetual state of alarm, not merely for the security of his little property, but for his personal safety and that of his family. He was obliged to inhabit rocks almost inaccessible to any foot but his own, and was perpetually called upon to remove from place to place lest the colonists should discover his abode. When he ventured forth in quest of game or roots, he was in the utmost fear of discovery, and had consequently leisure for nothing but the necessary regard to his own personal safety.

In the first days of his intercourse with white people these disturbing influences did not exist, and therefore no such vindictive feelings were manifested. In the beginning the strangers were looked upon as beings of a superior order, endowed with supernatural powers, men who had thunder and lightning at command, and who could slay the swiftest and most ferocious animals by some invisible means, even at a distance from them. In those days, instead of looking upon them as pernicious enemies, the hunting parties of the whites were welcomed, from the abundant supply of food which they furnished, the spoils of the numerous elephants and hippopotami they killed affording means of feasting and festivity.

In 1824 there were men still living who could remember this state of things in the Cape Colony, and in 1876 there were voortrekkers who could recollect when the hunting parties that first crossed the 'Nu 'Gariep were received in a similar manner north of that river, when the men of the old hunter race hailed their advent as visitors bringing in their train days of plenty and rejoicing. But when their land was in question, the case was altered.

Depredations commenced on the one hand, and commandos on the other, retaliation followed, and commandos, until they became a portion of an established system, which left absolute power in the hands of the very men who most benefited by their continuance. The grown up people were therefore shot down without mercy, and the children were dragged into a state of perpetual servitude ; injuries were inflicted on both sides, and mutual hatred, as a natural consequence, increased in intensity.

Little is now known of the final struggle of the clans that once occupied the present Cape Colony. The actors therein have with few exceptions passed away, and the only remembrance preserved is that in every instance they maintained the hopeless conflict with an unconquerable spirit, fighting " without conscience" to the very last against the men who had predetermined to destroy them utterly. The tragic fate of the last clan of all the numerous tribes which once inhabited the extensive range of the Sneeuwberg will give an apt demonstration of this, and will vividly illustrate the relentless manner in which they were followed up to the bitter end. This touching episode was related to the writer by Dr. R. Rubidge, F.G.S., who spent the greater portion of his youth in wandering about the rocks and crags of those mountains.

He stated that after committing some depredations, the clan was surrounded by a commando which had pursued them and succeeded in cutting them off among the rocks of a projecting shoulder of a great precipice. Here the retreating Bushmen turned for the last time at bay. Their untiring enemies were on one side, a yawning gulf without any chance of escape on the other. A dire but hopeless struggle for life commenced. One after another they fell under the storm of bullets with which their adversaries assailed them.

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The dead and dying were heaped upon the dizzy projecting ledge, many in their death struggle rolled and fell over among the crags and fissures in the depths which environed them. Still they resisted, and still they fell, until one only remained ; and yet, with the bloody heap of dead around him and the mangled bodies of his comrades on the rocks below, he seemed as undaunted as when surrounded by the entire band of his brave companions. Posting himself on the very outermost point of the projecting rocks, with sheer precipices of nearly a couple of hundred feet on either side of him, a spot where no man would have dared to follow him, he defied his pursuers, and amid the bullets which showered around him he appeared to have a charmed life and plied his arrows with unerring aim whenever his enemies incautiously exposed themselves.

His last arrow was on the string. A slight feeling of compassion seemed at length to animate the hostile multitude that hemmed him in ; they called to him that his life should be spared if he would surrender. He let fly his last arrow in scorn at the speaker, as he replied that " a chief knew how to die, but never to surrender to the race who had despoiled him ! " Then with a wild shout of bitter defiance he turned round, and leaping headlong into the deep abyss was dashed to pieces on the rocks beneath.

Thus died, with a Spartan-like intrepidity, the last of the clan. and with his death his tribe ceased to exist. Dr. Rubidge assured the writer that on his last visit to the spot, only a few years previously, some of the bleached bones of this exterminated tribe were still to be seen on the inaccessible ledges where the bodies had lodged in their fall.

Not content with destroying these unfortunate creatures to the south of the 'Nu 'Gariep or Upper Orange river, commandos, long before the emigrant farmers moved in a body across that stream, were sent to scour the country to the north of it and to destroy as many of the hordes as they could discover. Three commandos of this kind carried havoc amongst them in the year 1830. One of these, consisting of one hundred and nine mounted " Christians," under the command of A. L. Pretorius, passed one of the fords near the present town of Aliwal, in order to attack the caves in the mountains along the course of the river.

It was of this commando that an old Bushwoman who had made a kind of hut under some overhanging rocks in the neighbourhood of Wepener, gave the following reminiscences, when questioned upon the subject of their artists by the writer. She said that her name was Se-liha, that her father's name was 'Koot-seli, and that he was still living at Thaba 'Nchu. When asked if she remembered any of the traditions of her tribe, and who were the painters in the caves, she replied, " We know nothing of our grandfathers, we do not know who painted our pictures ; the Dutchmen shot them all down at the great slaughter, and carried us, the children, away. I was a little girl, six or seven years old, at the time.”

Mr. Jacobus du Plessis, who acted as interpreter to the commando under Louw Pretorius, gave the following description of the operations of the division to which he was attached, at the time that the Bushmen of the Genadeberg were exterminated. He informed the writer that about the year 1830, from the frequent complaints made by the Boers of robberies and other outrages committed by Bushmen to the various fieldcornets, strong representations were made by these officers of the necessity of repressing the marauders and driving out the thieves. The thefts were principally of horses, in or about the Cradock district.

These were immediately driven long distances and exchanged for others obtained in different directions, and thus Bushmen living even at as great a distance from the scene of depredations as the Genadeberg were said to be implicated in them. The government apparently, without any further examination, acceded to the strong representations, and recklessly issued orders which proved the death-warrant of several hundred unhappy wretches, many of whom must have been perfectly innocent of the crime so sweepingly ascribed to them.

Accordingly, armed with these letters of marque, three commandos were marshalled in the above year to be sent against the distant clans of Bushmen, with the intention of attacking their strongholds simultaneously at three different points. One moved through the country south of the Stormberg ; the second through the present Burghersdorp arid Wodehouse districts, through the Washbank, attacking all the known caves up to the branches of the Drakensberg ; the third, to which Mr. Du Plessis was attached, moved along the Orange river towards the site of the present town of Aliwal North, where, crossing the river, they pushed on and attacked the tribe that occupied the caves of the Genadeberg.

This division consisted of one hundred and nine Dutch burghers, under the old commandant Pretorius, and Nicolaas Erasmus, as fighting commandant, second in command. The attack commenced by an attempt to drive out the Bushmen from the caves and strongholds on the western side of the mountain.

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The principal of these were near and under the waterfalls, in the two principal ravines running into the main range, the approaches to which were covered with enormous loose masses of rock, large trees, and thick brushwood, making an advance upon them an extremely hazardous undertaking. Here the hunters defended themselves very determinedly, and it was only with great difficulty that they were driven from point to point, until they fell back to an almost inaccessible position under the great waterfall. They were, however, forced at last to abandon this post, probably owing to the failure of their supply of arrows, when they effected their retreat through the thickly wooded and precipitous glen that forms a narrow pass to the opposite side of the mountain, to the great cave of their chief in Poshuli's Hoek.

This cave is one of great extent, affording secure shelter to its inhabitants. It has deep ramifications on either side, with an enormous arch of rock stretching across the entire breadth of the ravine. Over the far projecting edge of this, during the rainy season a torrent of water precipitates itself into the chasm below, which is choked up with great masses of rock that have rolled into it, while its mouth is still more shielded by trees, which spring up in the interstices of the loosened crags.

These barriers not only made the stronghold a difficult and formidable position, but the well-known daring of the chief, who now in his last retreat had turned upon his pursuers to defend it, rendered it prudent to try to induce its defenders to come to terms and surrender themselves, without the hazard which any attempt to take it by force would necessarily involve.

For this purpose the attacking commando occupied both sides of the ravine, thus closing up all the approaches to the cave and cutting off any chance of escape should its occupants attempt to get away. From these points the more central portions of the cave were exposed to the invaders' fire. After thus beleaguering the place, three attempts were made to parley with the Bushman chief.

On each occasion he allowed the interpreter, Du Plessis, then a boy of fourteen years of age, to enter his rock-fort to deliver his message, and then depart unharmed, without any attempt to molest him. It is well worthy of notice that the Bushmen, wild and untamed savages as they were considered, almost in every instance respected the person of an envoy sent to them ; and it was not until after due notice had been given to him three distinct times to depart, that they considered the truce at an end, and that any further delay was at his own peril. This intimation was given by the repetition of the word 'Kamans ! Be gone ! with a short interval between each.

'Korel was the name of the Bushman chief on this occasion. He was rather larger in stature than any of his tribe, but had a defect in one eye, that rendered it useless. Notwithstanding this, as a bowman he far surpassed any other Bushman. His bow was larger than those in common use by the men of his tribe, and his arrows were longer, which enabled him to project one of his shafts with fatal effect to a distance of one hundred and thirty yards.

On Du Plessis' admittance into the cave, he found this wild hunter chief seated in the middle of a circle of his followers. 'Korel was urged to surrender, and promised safe conduct for himself and the people of his tribe if he would submit ; the hopelessness of resistance against the strong armed force by which he was surrounded was pointed out ; but the chief, although told by the messenger that to ensure his safety they would walk hand in hand until they came into the presence of the commandant, had no confidence in the promises made to him.

At last, becoming impatient, he said, " Go ! be gone ! Tell your commandant that I am not a child, and that (striking his hand upon his breast) I have a strong heart here ! Go ! be gone ! My eyes cannot bear the sight of you longer ; and tell your 'Gousa my last words are that not only is my quiver full of arrows, but they are filleted also round my head, and that I shall resist and defend myself as long as I have life left ! 'Kamans ! Go ! be gone ! "

The envoy departed, and was allowed to return to the commandant in safety. Then commenced the attack and resistance in earnest, and showers of arrows flew whizzing around any and every one of the besiegers who exposed himself too much, or approached too near. Storming parties were organised, and attempted to advance under cover of their rudely improvised shields ; now they advanced a little, now they were brought to a sudden stand by the difficulties of the ground, or driven back in confusion by the killing or wounding of one of their companions. The shafts of the chief were shot with unerring precision, and thus seven of the attacking party were struck by them.

Commandant Pretorius became most anxious for the safety of his men. The resistance was of the most determined character, and the position was critical. Erasmus, seeing that the only chance would be to form a lodgment in the cave, called for volunteers to carry this design into execution.

Thirty of the burghers responded to the call. This time a kind of great shield or screen was made, by extending their long duffel cloaks upon cross sticks, these being found impervious to the slender reed arrows of the Bushmen, their points merely becoming entangled in the texture of the extended garments, and then hanging down like enormous elongated bristles. Under this cover they advanced cautiously in a column. A chosen marksman, named Myburgh, was told off to make a flank movement, so that from his ambush he might shoot down any of the defenders of the cave when they exposed themselves in aiming at their advancing foes.

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The Bushmen, determined to the last, made a desperate effort to beat back their assailants, who although slowly were now steadily advancing upon them, until the undaunted 'Korel, too frequently showing himself at the same point, made himself too prominent an object to the concealed marksman, when he received a shot and fell back dead among his faithful and equally undaunted followers. They fell to a man, and although their enemies lost seven of their number in killed and wounded, not a soul among the Bushmen escaped the snare that was spread around their cave. Thus perished the Bushmen of the Genadeberg, and thus ended the Bushman occupation of the great cave in Poshuli's Hoek.

Among other places which this commando attacked were several caves in the mountains near Matateng, or Komet Spruit Poort, also called Roode Poort. Here at one of the strongholds where all the defenders were shot, a Bushman, although his leg was shattered by a bullet, continued to defend himself, and succeeded in keeping his enemies at bay as long as his arrows lasted, when a second ball through his head put an end to his existence.

'Kou'ke stated that in addition to this there was another Bushman captain, whom the Boers called Uithaalder, who had been driven from point to point between the Orange and Caledon rivers by this commando, until he and the remnant of his tribe were hemmed in by their pursuers among the rocks and krantzes of the same Roode Poort.

Here, finding himself at bay, he resolved to make a final stand ; and although an almost incessant fire was maintained upon himself and his doomed band, he determinedly and successfully repulsed every attack that was made upon him during seven long days. By the evening of the seventh day, scarcely one of his men had an arrow left. Feeling the hopelessness of further resistance, and knowing that they must be overcome the next day, when he was certain to meet the same fate that had overtaken so many of his countrymen, he during the night successfully carried out a plan that those acquainted with the locality would have deemed impossible.

In the dead of night he and all that remained of his tribe, men, women, and children, silently scaled the steep precipitous cliffs that overhung his position, along ledges and small projecting points where even a baboon could scarcely have obtained a footing, carrying with them whatever they valued, yet so cleverly was this desperate and daring enterprise carried out that not the least alarm was given to the camps of those who beleaguered them. In the morning his enemies woke up to find a deserted cave, with nothing more than the bare and silent rocks about them, while long before dawn the Bushman captain and all his people were many miles away, making good their retreat until they found a secure asylum in the rugged fastnesses of the Drakensberg.

After this commando crossed the Orange river, others were not long in following ; others again penetrated into the glens of the Washbank, and Commandant Greyling was sent as far to the east-ward in 1835-6 as the noted Gatberg. In 1836-7 the emigrant farmers began to flock into the country north of the 'Nu-'Gariep, when the more systematic extermination of the Bushmen commenced ; and there are many localities scattered over the present Free State where terrible tragedies were enacted, but which have been hidden from the eyes of too prying curiosity. The Bushmen who lived in the caves in Knoffel Spruit and Riebeeksdal were all shot in the year 1836, by a commando sent to root them out.

It was thus that the Bok-poort Bushmen perished ; and the fate of the last survivor affords another instance, among many of the personal intrepidity of the men of this race. His name is unknown, but he was the captain or leader of a party that was attacked by a strong patrol on the rocky ridge formed by the great dyke that runs from the present homestead near the poort, towards the Caledon.

All his companions had fallen under the bullets of their assailants, and now he alone was left to withstand the entire brunt of the attack. This he did, nothing daunted, by sheltering himself behind three or four oxen that the Bushmen had with them, now shooting over their backs, now launching his arrows from between their legs. This he managed so adroitly that he never once exposed himself to the fire of his enemies, while at the same time the steadiness of his aim kept them all at such a respectful distance that they began to fear that he would ultimately escape.

To prevent this, they commenced a parley with him ; at first he would not listen to them, and only replied by letting fly an arrow or two to prevent approach. At length, probably from the diminishing number of his arrows, and under strong assurances that his life would be spared, he consented to capitulate. He left his cover, and advanced amongst them ; but immediately he was in their power, in utter violation of the promises that had been made, one of his enraged captors treacherously shot him through the head, and a heap of stones was hastily thrown over his body. Thus ended the career of the last of the Bok-poort Bushmen.

From year to year the same system was continued, and year after year some horde or other was exterminated. In 1849 the Boers made a commando to destroy some Bushmen that were on a hill in Oliver's Kloof, on the Caledon.

Under the rule of the Sovereignty the same ruthless policy was perpetuated. The last of their strongholds were attacked, and the unhappy occupants shot down when they could not manage to escape. These operations were sometimes carried out under the personal superintendence of the British Resident.

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The great caves of the Matlakeng or Aasvogelberg were taken by storm, and the clans that inhabited them disappeared from the face of the earth. The Bushmen of Thaba Patsoa had retired for safety to the precipitous table crest of their mountain, but their fancied security proved their ruin. In the dead of night, the force of the Resident climbed to the top of the mountain by a craggy path, and then as the dawn was breaking, by a coup-de-main the sleeping horde was overpowered and the greater portion of them slain.

The last Bushmen of Boloko or Groote Vecht Kop were under a chief who had obtained the name of Danster and was living with his people in one of the great caves there. There is no evidence to show whether this man was the same individual as the treacherous murderer of the Windvogel and Lichtenstein people or not, but this Bushman of Boloko was slain and his people destroyed by a Mosuto of the name of Raphotho.N

Notes: Memoir by Miss L. E. Lemue. Notes by Charles S. Orpen.

Mapaya was the last captain of the Bushmen inhabiting the caves of the neighbouring range called Mapayasberg. He repulsed the commando that was sent to drive his people out of their caves, notwithstanding that they attempted to do so by the use of hand grenades, a number of which exploded in the stronghold of the chief himself, which he had fortified by the addition of a small parapet was of rough stones piled together ; but although the assailants succeeded in lodging a considerable number within this enclosure, their explosion seemed to produce no other effect than that some bleeding and wounded women made their appearance and came crawling towards them.

One of the besiegers, an Englishman, was killed on the spot with a poisoned arrow. They found it impossible to obtain a position whence they could command the cave, while the defenders kept up a determined resistance, not only with flights of arrows, but by rolling down great masses of rock upon their assailants, aided by a few bullets from some muskets which they had managed to get into their possession. This storm of missiles effectually checked the advance of the attacking party, and they were ultimately obliged to retire, baffled and beaten by the resolution of this Bushman chief. No other attack was made upon them, but after a time the mountain was found abandoned.

When the chief and his clan evacuated the mountain no one knew what had become of them, nor was any further information ever obtained, although it was believed that they had made a secret march to their fugitive countrymen who had sought a refuge in the depths of the Malutis.

Although the Basutu tribes invaded the mountainous parts of the old Bushman territory, the original inhabitants, who escaped the rapacious jaws of the cannibals, tenaciously held, in most instances, their mountain strongholds until the great Basutu war with the Free State, when the Basutus, retreating themselves to these mountains, seized and fortified all the available caves and ejected the ancient owners.

In this struggle, these scattered remnants of Bushman tribes in many instances made common cause with the Basutus, and frequently their individual bravery did much to check the superior forces of the Free State, and even on some occasions turned the tide of battle. Numerous incidents of this kind are related even by those who were opposed to them.

One of the great caves of the Langeberg is situated in a precipitous ravine in the rear of the kraal of Lacoa, a son of Molitsane, chief of the Bataung. It is of great extent, and its innermost ramifications are lost in darkness, with dripping springs in several parts of it. A great number of cattle might be driven into it. This cave had been from time immemorial one of the strongholds of the Bushmen of the mountain, but as the stronger tribes of natives kept forcibly filling up the country, they had gradually disappeared, either under the clubs, the battleaxes, or the assagais of the invaders, until its sole inhabitants were one solitary Bushman with his two wives.

At the commencement of the war the cave was occupied by the Basutus, and fortified by them with a strong stone breastwork. It certainly might have been made a formidable position, for the greater portion of the cave was completely bomb-proof.. It was attacked by a large commando supplied with artillery. The numerous marks both of bullets and cannon shot testify, even at the present day, how heavy was the fire directed upon it.

A storming party had gradually worked its way up the almost precipitous ascent, they had gained a footing near the breastwork itself, a young man named Massyn had already leaped upon it, revolver in hand, the Basutu defenders were shrinking back into the deeper recesses of the cave, when a kind of panic seized the almost victorious, but breathless storming party, and on a sudden they fell, some almost rolling, back in confusion, leaving their comrade alone on the breastwork to escape as best he could.

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This sudden change was occasioned by the old inhabitant of the cave, who having concealed himself behind some rocks commenced plying his whizzing arrows amongst them with such rapidity, while they were unfit after the severe climbing they had performed, to take steady aim, that they saw no safety from the Bushman's poisoned shafts except in prompt retreat. After this no other storming party had the courage to make a second attempt, and the siege of the cave was raised. At the close of the war, when he was asked why he defended that spot so determinedly for the Basutus, he replied that he did not fight for them, but to protect his ground and the dwelling of his father.

A somewhat similar instance occurred of a Bushman defending the old cave of his tribe after the Basutus had taken possession of and fortified it, as a shelter during the same war. When this place, which was situated near the Leeuw river, was attacked, he took up his position on a projecting but nearly inaccessible ledge immediately above it, where he had erected a small breastwork for his own special occupation. From this coign of vantage he positively kept for a considerable time the whole commando at bay, and entirely prevented them from making any decisive movement against the cave, until at length a chance shot put an end to his resistance and his life at the same time.

The tenacity with which isolated survivors of once powerful tribes of these Bushmen stuck to their old caves is astonishing. They preferred to linger out their lives in abject misery, so long as they could remain in their neighbourhood, rather than follow those of their race who had removed to a distance, a step which would have forced these unhappy outcasts to abandon them for ever, an idea which they could not endure.

Much pity is often expressed for the poor natives, the descendants of tribes of savages who but two or three generations ago so ruthlessly invaded and appropriated to themselves the hunting grounds of this most primitive race ; but little commiseration has been expressed towards the ancient owners of the land, who even now have left evidence behind them that they must have remained in undisturbed possession of it for thousands of years.

Numerous instances might yet be collected of this devotion and passionate attachment of the ancient aborigines to the homes of their fathers and their ancestral caves, of which the painted walls at one time formed their pride and their glory.

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The last remnants of the painter tribes took refuge in the Malutis, where their numbers gradually increased until they were able to muster some hundreds of fighting men. Some of their clans were scattered through all the fastnesses of that most precipitous range, and here their artists once more adorned their caves with the latest productions of their talents.

Here the last of the elands had attempted to find an asylum, and the sole survivors of the hippopotami, which once swarmed in all the great rivers around, tried to hide themselves in the deep black pools of almost inaccessible glens which so deeply serrated with chasms and tortuous windings the very heart of the lofty range. Their principal mountain fortress was formed of the projecting shoulder, fitly named the Giant's Castle, whose towering crags rise, like the castellated ruins of some old-world Titanic fort, thousands of feet above the hills and plains below which form the coast belt of land and stretch away in the distance in dim perspective till lost in the haze of the great southern ocean.

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This formed their last retreat, a fitting one for a race of cave dwellers, after they were harried out of the western portions of the range by the Basutus. Here, their game having been destroyed and a mountainous region yielding few of the roots and tubers necessary for their subsistence, they were forced to levy continuous blackmail upon the stronger races which had seized their country and had thus become their hereditary enemies. This portion of the struggle, however, was not of long duration.

On the one hand the Basutus slew them without mercy, whenever any of the marauders fell into their hands. The Baphuti chief Morosi, who was himself a half caste by his mother's side, destroyed the men of entire clans in order that he and his people might possess the women and girls, and only a few years before his death he made a grand final raid upon their remaining strongholds, when some hundreds of them perished, all the surviving females were captured, and the remnant of the unhappy fugitives was forcibly amalgamated into his tribe. Up to the time of the breaking out of the colonial war with this old mountain chief, a great number of Bushmen, some of them very old people, were residing in the territory which he had seized and claimed as his own.

While the work of extermination was being thus carried on by the stronger natives, the forays of the Bushmen into the lower country were followed with equally severe chastisement. Frequent patrols were sent in search of them, who sometimes pursued them to the caves in which they had taken shelter.

It was on an occasion like this that the last known captain of the Maluti Bushmen met his tragic fate. His name was Sweni, or 'Zweei, " the Knife." He had been followed up to his stronghold, where he was besieged in his cave by Allison's people. He had a few guns, and he defended himself vigorously both with these and his poisoned arrows.

At length the arrows were expended, but he still kept up his musketry fire, until it was noticed by the besiegers that his firing was without effect, and that the unfortunate Zweei had been for a considerable time firing merely with powder. He had no bullets, and he had imagined that the noise alone would be sufficient to keep his pursuers at bay.

It certainly succeeded until all his arrows were finished ; but when his enemies found out the harmless character of his apparently desperate resistance, a rush was made upon his position without further delay, and the last stronghold of the last Bush-man captain of the Malutis was taken by storm. Even then he was not overcome until his native weapons failed him and he had nothing left as a means of defence but a few miserable guns and some powder which he had obtained from the invaders.

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The last known Bushman artist of the Malutis was shot in the Witteberg Native Reserve, where he had been on a marauding expedition, and had captured some horses. He was evidently a man of considerable repute among his race. He had ten small horn pots hanging from a belt, each of which contained a different coloured paint. The informant of the writer told him that he saw the belt, that there were no two colours alike, and that each had a marked difference from the rest. This relic, which unfortunately appears to have been lost, proved the advance some of these native and self-taught artists had made in the manufacture of various shades of colour.

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Thus perished the last of the painter tribes of Bushmen! Thus perished their chiefs and artists ! after a continuous struggle to maintain their independence and to free their hunting grounds from the invaders who pressed in from every side for upwards of a couple of centuries, a period which commenced with the southern migration of the Hottentot hordes, and did not end until the last surviving clans had been exterminated with the bullet and the assagai, and their bones were left to bleach amid the rugged precipices of the Malutis.

The undying attachment which many of these people displayed to localities where they and their fathers had lived has been too frequently and clearly demonstrated to admit of refutation. In this feeling, and in their attachment to their tribal hunting grounds was shown their love of country; and their determination to hold and defend it— savage as they may have been, degraded as their enemies ever delighted to depict them— evinced their patriotism in a no less unmistakable manner.

Had they been men of any race except that of the despised and often falsely maligned Bushman, the wrongs which were heaped upon them, the sufferings they endured, their daring and intrepidity, their unconquerable spirit, and the length of the hopeless struggle they maintained when every other race was arrayed against them, coveting their land and thirsting for their blood, would have placed them, notwithstanding the excesses into which they were betrayed, in the rank of heroes and patriots of no mean order.

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THE ENCROACHMENT OF THE STRONGER RACES


In entering upon this portion of our subject we may observe that in the foregoing chapters we have shown that there is every reason for believing that the origin of the Bushman race was far north of the equator, and that at a very remote period they followed the migration of the game to the southward. The men of this hunter race remained for unknown ages in apparently undisturbed possession of Central and Southern Africa, their retreat farther being prevented by the ocean, and there, notwithstanding all the social convulsions to which most of the other portions of the world were subject, a remnant remains until the present day, standing out clear and strong as a relic and memorial of a past stage in the world's existence.

It was here in this remote comer of the world, isolated and unchanged, the ancient Bushman remained, roaming over his broad hunting fields, and struggling ever and anon with the lion for the ownership and sovereignty of the countless herds that covered the mighty plains of the South. And this while in other parts of the world civilisation was developing from its earliest germs, while ancient empires grew up, and flourished, and decayed, and became again nothing but a memory of the vanished past.

While their grandest structures were crumbling into ruins, and the ruins were becoming silently entombed in the drifting sand, here he, the associate of the rhinoceros and giraffe, sculptured the rocks over with the primitive designs of art, and covered the walls of his cave dwelling with paintings, many so closely copied from nature that they would seem to prove that he himself, before his isolation, must have formed the first rippling wave of that advancing tide of civilisation which was thrown off from the grand centre of its birth, and of which he, after his enforced separation, became the stereotyped representative.

Thus it was that driven onward before the development and advance of races stronger than himself, he still fostered and carried with him this art-germ, until he found himself land-locked in the silent parts of the earth, while far in his rear, and severed from him by a migration of still darker negro barbarism, which must have subsequently forced itself across the path he had taken, the northern nations, of which he was a distant link, were carried onward by a steady after-flood of progress.

It was this very progress, however, which ultimately, by hemming in the seething mass of equatorial savage life, checked its expansion in that direction, and turned towards the south the tide of intervening barbarism represented by the ancestors of the present stronger native races in Southern Africa. This movement, though possibly slow at first, gradually gained strength and impetus with the increase of population, and now creeping on, now surging forward under the guidance of ambitious chieftains, pressing tribe on tribe like great pursuing waves, then possibly a pause, that may have lasted for generations, until amid internal heavings and internecine war another storm-wave rose which, beaten from the north, would naturally expend its fury in the opposite direction, sweeping at various points over the weaker opposing tribes, or hurrying them on in front ever farther and farther, and ever encroaching more and more upon the domains of the primitive hunter race.

While here a single fugitive tribe advanced, there they pressed forward in various streams, to the west, the east, or over the central plains, until they met and struggled, and in every struggle always still encroached. The hapless hunters found themselves opposed at every point, isolated and hemmed in, the hate of every intruder being turned especially against them. Their greatest crime being that they were the original possessors of the soil, a war of extermination was waged against them, until at last the miserable remnants of their once numerous race had to struggle for a precarious existence in a few almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses or in the wilds of the Kalahari desert.

In following up this inquiry we shall find, from South African evidence, that after the original Bushman migration, the Hottentot tribes, at a comparatively recent period, were the first to follow them. These people were themselves driven from the more central portions of the continent by another race still stronger than themselves. They then retreated in a south-westerly direction, until arrested by the Atlantic, when they turned towards the south. We shall find that in the meantime the tribes before whom the Hottentots fled were themselves pressed farther into Central Southern Africa, and away from the eastern coast, by still stronger and fiercer hordes from the north.

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The men who pressed forward the Hottentots were the Bachoana and Basutu hordes, who were not only a pastoral but an agricultural people, who were occasionally impelled by their lust for cattle to attack their neighbours ; but their devotion to agricultural pursuits must have prevented them from making rapid conquests. Their migrations, therefore, from one place to another would be a matter of time, that took generations in their accomplishment ; while the men who were slowly but surely advancing upon them were almost purely pastoral, and as a necessary consequence more warlike.

We shall find that when these last, who wielded the club and the assagai, discovered more luxuriant and more permanent pasturage for their herds within a specified zone along the coast, they, after turning the flank of the Bachoana migration more into the interior, adhered strictly to the seaboard, and engrossed for their own use the broad belt of land that runs for an immense distance with the ocean on one hand and the great range of mountains that stretches itself almost parallel to it on the other. Here tribe followed tribe, the stronger as in every other case pressing the weaker before it ; again they were like successive waves, the one behind urging forward the one immediately in front, the Abatembu, the Amaxosa, the Amampondo, and the Amazulu, ever advancing from the eastward.

The great shields adopted by the foremost Kaffirs proved impervious to the tiny reed shafts of the Bushmen, who had until then been in undisturbed possession of that part of the continent, but who from that time forward were driven from one retreat to another until the survivors retired to their fellow countrymen inhabiting the more open plains to the north of the rugged ranges which skirt the sea-coast zone, thus leaving the victorious Kaffir race to advance towards the west, until they came in contact with strange white-faced men still more invincible than they had imagined themselves to be, against whom, with many minor fluctuations, the tidal wave of rude barbarism beat in vain.

In examining the evidence that has been collected upon the migrations and history of the tribes above alluded to, it will be better to follow the sequence in which they came upon the South African scene. We shall therefore consider —

I. The Hottentot tribes, a nomadic pastoral race, armed with bows and arrows, originally without poison, and sometimes shields and miserably small javelins.

II. The agricultural and pastoral Bachoana and Basutu tribes from the north, also armed with bows and arrows, small shields, assagais, clubs, and battleaxes.

III. The pastoral and more warlike Coast Kaffirs, the Amaxosa and other frontier tribes, armed with javelins or assagais and immense shields cut from an entire ox hide.

IV. The Abatembu and Amampondo tribes, with assagais, clubs, and oval shields.

V. The Amazulu, Matabli, and Natal tribes, with large oval shields and short broad-bladed stabbing assagais, with which they charged at close quarters.

VI. The tribes of Basutuland, with assagais, battleaxes, and deeply indented shields.

VII. The men of the Dutch settlements.

VIII. The English occupation.

In these sections we shall make such additional remarks upon the manners and customs of the native races as may tend to throw a clearer light upon their probable migration and origin.

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The Hottentot and other Kindred Tribes.

These tribes have a special interest in connection with the subject of our inquiry, from the fact that they were the first people with whom the daring navigators of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries came in contact at the southern extremity of the African continent. For a long time they were considered the aborigines of the country and the ancient owners of the soil, whose forefathers had possessed the same from time immemorial.

Some writers described them as a very numerous race, whose teeming hordes were spread over the length and breadth of the land. From the evidence collected in the present work, we shall find that such statements are far from giving a correct representation of the case : that instead of being the rightful possessors of the soil, they had intruded into territories which had previously for an unknown period been the hunting grounds of the Bushman race ; that these Hottentots, in the earlier days of their migrations, came from the far interior in the north-east, and moved towards the south-west until they were arrested by the Atlantic a few degrees south of the equator ; that after this they gradually spread themselves along the western coast, dispossessing the original occupiers of the country, until they reached the southern limit at the Cape of Good Hope, around which point and between this and the lower portion of the Orange river their principal tribes congregated.

We shall find also that although a few tribes penetrated a little farther to the eastward along the coast line, it would appear that for a long period they did not make any serious lodgment in that direction, being kept back not only by the formidable difficulties presented by the physical features of the country, but also by terror of the poisoned arrows of the fiery race of pigmies who occupied all the mountain barriers to the eastward, and who at last roused themselves to repel the further unceremonious invasion which threatened their hitherto undisputed domains.

Some few of this more ancient race had become half dependent upon the nomadic herdsmen who were gradually attempting to usurp possession of all the best pasturage of the western and open portions of the country, but by far the greater majority of them tenaciously clung to the mountain strongholds of their fathers, and refused to come to terms with men whom they considered as intruders, who were gradually spreading themselves over the broad pastures of their herds of game, and whose presence scared away the animals which afforded them the means of subsistence.

The relative condition in which the Hottentots and Bushmen were found in the middle of the seventeenth century may be received as confirmatory evidence of the fact that the former had not long been settled in those parts of the country.

The Bushmen were still living in most of the mountainous and wooded portions of it, — even Table Mountain was occupied by them, — and although they lived in a condition of comparative dependence on the Hottentots and acted as their light troops, taking care of their outposts, and performing the duties of messengers and spies, in the more inaccessible portions of the country to the east and north-east the Bushmen were living without the slightest trammel, ruled by their own chiefs, and under a rude form of government, which, however primitive it might have been in its details, was entirely their own ; and there appears little probability that either under the Hottentots or Kaffirs these Bushmen would ever have fallen into a lower degree of servitude.

Such then was the position of these two races when other and still stronger men appeared upon the scene : a race of white faces, shaggy and bearded as the native lions of the land, a race that appeared to come out of the sea, who dwelt upon floating islands, and who had the lightning and the thunder of the storm- cloud at their command. These were the Portuguese, who came and went away ; and again the Dutch, who made a permanent settlement.

At first the new arrivals appeared a great gain, but after a time the gain gradually turned all on one side, and upon the excuse of some alleged offence or other encroachment followed encroachment, until those who had dispossessed the old hunter tribes and appropriated their grounds for pasture lands, found themselves not only almost stripped of their cattle, but dispossessed of the land they themselves had taken ; and once more a migration of their tribes commenced.

One portion pushed on towards the east, followed by the stronger race who had dispossessed them, until they were stopped by the great mountain barriers which barred their further progress in that direction, and whose rugged and precipitous passes, strongly garrisoned as they were by the intrepid and untamed dwellers of the caves and forests, they dared not attempt to force, until they were overtaken by their pursuers and became absorbed and made serfs to the white race that was ever on their heels.

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Another portion of the retreating Hottentots pressed towards the north until they reached the valley of the Great river, and penetrated along its course far into that portion of the Bushman territory, some settling down for a time in that part of the country now occupied by the division of Victoria West, where they spent their time in petty quarrels with one another, each separate kraal trying to appropriate the cattle of those richer than themselves.

This and encounters with the Bushman owners of the land filled up their time, until the increasing inroads and atrocities of the restless bandit Africaander on the one hand, and the pressure from the extension of the colonial boundaries on the other, once more set them on the move, when they again continued their onward migrations until they reached the Orange river near its junction with the Vaal.

Here the Korana tribes were the first that crossed. After doing so, they advanced along the valley of the Vaal, seizing the country and driving back, or annihilating whenever possible, the Bushman tribes that strove to check their advance. Pressing still towards the north, they at length met, near the present Kuruman and Lithako, the first of the Bachoana tribes, who had in the meantime advanced from the north, and who, notwithstanding the almost irrepressible predatory habits of the yellow-skins, were able after a time effectually to check their further progress in that direction.

For a long series of years after this collision the nomadic clans indulged their love of plunder, in making forays and raids upon one another, or, as restless as the Arabs of the desert, they attacked any other tribe in the neighbourhood that they considered sufficiently weak to fall an easy prey to their lawlessness. All these tribes were purely nomadic-pastoral, never making the least attempt at cultivation, except a few of their clans who raised a little dacha. Their condition constantly fluctuated between the extremes of plenty and famine.

In following out this inquiry, we shall therefore, for the sake of precision, do so under the following heads —

1. The Hottentots of the early Dutch Period,

2. The Tribes of the West Coast,

3. The Koranas, and

4. The Griquas.

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The Hottentots of the Early Dutch Period.

In studying this portion of our subject we soon discover that the difficulties of investigation are greatly increased, and considerable confusion is occasioned, both from the indiscriminate use by the early writers of different names, and employing different modes of spelling, when giving the appellation of any particular tribe ; and also from their classing all under the common term of Hottentots, where other tribes such as the Bushmen are intended.

From the only reliable evidence which can now be obtained, it would appear that the title Hottentot is not of native origin, but a sobriquet given to them by the early Dutch traders from the almost unpronounceable character of their language. The almost constant termination of qua to the Hottentot tribal names is asserted by Korana authorities to be synonymous with the Ba and Ama prefixes of the Bachoana and Kaffir families, meaning the people, sons, or men of. Thus the Cochoqua would be the men of Cocho, the Gora (or more probably Kora) choqua, the men of Kora.

A traveller of the last century tells us that Auteniqua signified " the men loaded with honey," from the immense number of wild bees which swarmed in the country they inhabited. Most probably the other names would be found to possess equally significant meanings, could they be rightly interpreted.

This nomadic people had arrived at a stereotyped stage of existence, and doubtless would for many ages more have remained unprogressive, retaining all their primitive modes of life, had it not been for the outward pressure which was brought to bear upon them about the middle of the seventeenth century. Van Riebeek among a number of other epithets describes them as " stinking and greasy," and it is quite certain that wherever they continued sufficiently isolated they remained perfectly unaltered to the end of last century, and even to a much later period in numerous instances. So much so that the sketch of their habits and customs given by Barrow in 1797 is a correct reflex of what they actually were nearly a century and a half before. All the Hottentots were evidently of the same low type as those which this accurate observer described.

The Hottentots and Bushmen had two remarkable faculties in common : that of quickness of sight and power of endurance in withstanding the cravings of hunger. It was remarked that they could distinguish objects scarcely visible to other men.

This faculty was well illustrated in their expertness in watching the flight of bees through the air, and by this means discovering their nest, although at a considerable distance ; the certainty also with which they followed the spoor or trail of animals through a difficult tract of country was another illustration of the same fact, they being frequently able to follow the pursuit at a full run, tiring out horse and rider who accompanied them. With regard to their endurance, if they possessed wonderful power in withstanding the pangs of hunger, their voracious appetites enabled them to make up for long fasting.

In preparing their meals, their meat was put upon the embers in long strings, and when just warmed through, the ashes serving as salt, it was seized and one end applied to the mouth, when they appeared to devour it in a consecutive piece. During this operation, while the meat was passing through their hands, these were occasionally cleaned by being rubbed over different parts of their bodies. The grease from these smearings would accumulate for years, and form a thick black coat of dirt over their skin, hiding its true colour, with the exception of their faces and hands, which they kept somewhat cleaner by rubbing them over with the dung of cattle.

Their dress was simple, consisting of a belt made of a thong cut from the skin of some animal. From this was suspended a pouch made in the shape of a ninepin cut longitudinally of jackal skin, the convex and hairy side being outermost. From the back part one or two small flaps of leather were dependent, covering no particular portion of the body. This constituted the whole of their summer dress. The Hottentot women of those days wandered about in the same state of comparative nudity as that of their lords and masters.

At an early period of life, immediately after the birth of the first child, the breasts began to grow loose and flaccid, and as old age approached these became distended to a great length ; the posterior parts at the same time swelled out to enormous dimensions.

They lived in portable huts constructed of rush mats, which could be taken down, rolled up, and made into bundles with their sapling supports and carried from place to place on their pack oxen during their migrations.

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Such were the tribes of wandering herdsmen found by Van Riebeek at Table Bay at the time of his landing. The principa of these were the Cochoqua and the Gora or Kora-choqua, from whom, as we shall discover in the sequel, the present Korana clans appear to have descended.

The Cochoqua were those who frequently resided in the immediate neighbourhood of Table Bay. They generally occupied the country from False Bay to Saldanha Bay and from Table Bay to the mountains in the east, never staying long in one place, but moving about for change of pasture. There appear to have been constant jealousies and quarrels between the tribes, with occasional raids upon each other's cattle and eloping with one another's wives. This latter amusement seems to have been a common occurrence among them, and thus became an endless cause of turmoil and tribal feuds.

In 1652 the Cochoqua were divided into two branches, the elder one being under a chief named Oedasoa, who considered himself the paramount chief, the other under a secondary captain named Gonnema. It is recorded that this Oedasoa had carried off the wife of 'Goeboe, the son of Sousa, chief of the Chainouqua. There appear to have been several tribes which at one time acknowledged their supremacy, but subsequently threw off their allegiance. Amongst others, they were generally at variance with the Namaqua, who were Hottentots like themselves.

Oedasoa said that although these people had many cattle, they had not so many men as he had ; and that when he was joined by the Korachoqua, the Goringhaiqua, and the Cochoqua under the chief Gonnema, he need not be afraid of any attempt the Namaqua might make upon him. From this fact it appears very probable that the Cochoqua, the Korachoqua, and the Goringhaiqua were kindred tribes of so recent a separation that they speedily reunited when a common danger threatened them.

The following recorded facts appear to support this position. The Gorachoqua were a people described to be rich in cattle. The name of their chief was 'Choro ; he took away the wife of Gonnema, kinsman of the chief of the Cochoqua. This tribe was discovered in 1657 by a party of the Dutch a day's journey north-east of Tygerberg ; they were then possessed of large herds of cattle, and were supposed to be able to muster from six to seven hundred men. They were supposed to belong to, or to be closely allied to the Cochoqua. They arrogated to themselves the title of 'Khoeque, or chief over other tribes, and thus often got into war with them. This is the very assumption made by the Taaibosch branch of the Koranas at the present day.

As the early writers could not be expected to detect the fine variations sometimes distinguishable in the clicks forming such a prominent feature in this class of languages, it would appear as if in the name of this tribe G has been employed to represent the initial click found in it, whereas 'K is more probably the one which ought to have been used, when the word would be as a consequence 'Kora instead of Gora, the former being the one from which the present Koranas derive their tribal appellation. All the native traditions uphold this position. In fact it is more than probable that the descendants of both these tribes would be found amongst the Koranas of the present day, and thus it is that the history of the first peopling of the Cape by white men is so clearly preserved among the traditions of this tribe.

The Charingunqua were another tribe that had renounced the authority of the Cochoqua, and had removed to the Oliphant's river in consequence.

The Cochoqua were the people who sold the Cape peninsula to the Dutch in 1672. The first hostilities between the Dutch and these Hottentots broke out the following year. Oedasoa was then dead, and Gonnema had succeeded to the chief authority in the tribe ; hence it was that this tribe was subsequently called Gonnemas. The Cochoqua under Gonnema were defeated with the loss of nearly all their cattle. The state of unrest which ensued from the vain endeavours of the vanquished Hottentots to regain a portion of their cherished cattle, caused the governor Goske to issue in 1675, three years after their defeat, orders that every male of the tribe who fell into the hands of the Dutch was to be destroyed.

Van Riebeek stated that the united tribe of the Cochoqua, twenty years before, were able to muster three thousand men capable of bearing arms, and that they often migrated a considerable distance inland with their large herds of cattle, carrying all their movables with them on their pack oxen.

Besides these tribes there was another called Goringhaiqua, under a chief named 'Go'gosoa. These people appear to have leagued with the Dutch in their attack upon the Cochoqua. The strength of the tribe is stated by one writer to have been about three hundred men, exclusive of women and children.

The Chariguriqua, subsequently called Grigriqua, lived towards the north, in the country intervening between the Cochoqua and the Namaqua. They were said to possess large herds of cattle. It was also stated that they were without any hereditary chief, and that the tribe itself had revolted or separated from the Cochoqua. In 1658 a portion of them migrated as far to the southward as Saldanha Bay, but they evidently shortly afterwards returned again to the north, as in 1661, when Van Meerhof undertook an expedition to the Namaqua, he found the latter in the country round the Khamiesbergen, while the Grigriqua were occupying that portion along the lower course of the Oliphant's river.

At this time the Bushmen inhabited the country from the Drakenstein mountains to the Quathlamba, while they were met with as far as the Okavanga towards the north.

The Hancumqua and the Chainouqua were either different titles for, or subdivisions of, one great tribe. The former appears the more probable. Their chief claimed to be paramount over all the other Hottentot tribes. His title was 'Choe-baka or 'Khoe-baka, which is described as meaning 'Khoe a mountain, Baka the highest of all or king. The name of this ruler, in the days of Van Riebeek, was Sousa or Sausoa.

The name of his son was 'Goe-boe, who married the daughter of Gogosoa. She was carried off by Oedasoa. Her sister's name was Osingkuina. It would appear that previous to the landing of the Dutch, this tribe never migrated from place to place. He and his people dwelt in the national mat huts of their race ; they bred cattle, and also subsisted by the cultivation of the plant dacha, of which all these tribes were very fond. They were said to be far richer both in men and cattle than the Cochoqua. They were divided into a number of dependent hordes, all of which acknowledged Sousa as their paramount. In 1660 they were located some four days' journey from the fort in Table Valley, in 1663 they were found about thirty-one miles from it, behind the mountains of Hottentots Holland.

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Sousa was held in such awe by those of other clans that neither Oedasoa nor any of his subjects dared come to trade so long as he remained near the fort. They made way for him, and waited upon him with presents of many cattle, to show the respect they owed to the highest king. That his authority was not merely nominal was shown by the fact of his interference in a quarrel between Choro, the chief of the 'Kora-choqua, and Gonnema, the captain of a branch of the Cochoqua.

They had parted in anger, the former having cunningly taken away the wife of the latter. War was imminent between them, until Sousa, the paramount chief, interfered, and threatened to degrade the one who was in the wrong. Such an acknowledgment of his supremacy by the chiefs of the other Hottentot tribes would make it seem highly probable that the one over which he ruled represented the main trunk of the Hottentot race, from which all the others have been offshoots. In that case the Koranas and Griquas of the present day represent the descendants of the Cochoqua group of clans, and the Colonial Hottentots the remains of the other tribes mentioned.

Another powerful tribe was the Hessequa, living farther north, but to the westward of the present division of Swellendam. Their language was so different from that of the Cochoqua that they could only communicate through Chainouqua interpreters. This fact is significant, and would certainly suggest that these Hessequa were not true Hottentots, but rather either a mixed race in which the Bushman element so much predominated that its language had been adopted by them, or else a purely Bushman tribe. The additional fact that these people were frequently threatening to drive the Chainouqua and Goringhaiqua out of the land would seem to indicate that the latter is the most probable.

The tribes living to the eastward were said to be the Chamaqua, the Omaqua, the Attaqua, and the Cauqua. All these, like the Hancumqua or Chainouqua, were rich in cattle, planters of dacha, and lived in mat huts. They extended from the north-east of the Hancumqua to the sea coast. Their cattle were those called the Namaqua, or long-horned breed, together with fat-tailed sheep. They used pack-oxen : men and women frequently rode together on the same ox. The Attaqua lived on both sides the Langeberg, above Mossel Bay, and near the present town of George, hence Attaqua Kloof.

It appears certain that these tribes were not sufficiently numerous to occupy the whole country ; they seem rather to have formed certain centres around which they migrated, with considerable tracts of land between them which were still held by the original owners of the soil. Thus in 1662, when Cruythof, during Commander Wagenaar's time, tried to reach Vigiti Magna and was driven back by the Namaqua, he found the Sonqua living between these tribes, and roving about like banditti, inhabiting mostly the mountains and doing much damage to their neighbours. By the description of their usage of bows and arrows there can be no doubt that they were Bushmen. This tribe of Sonqua was subdued by the Namaqua in 1662.

Besides these there were a number of tribes, such as the Strandloopers, or as they called themselves Goringhaicona, who subsisted only by fishing on the sea-rocks. It seems, however, almost certain that these different hordes were the representatives of tribes living in the country previous to the arrival of the pastoral Hottentots, and were therefore more nearly allied to the Bushmen than to them, even if some of them were not the remnants of old Bushman tribes that had been dispossessed by the intruders.

From the description given of the Goringhaicona by Oedasoa, the chief of the Cochoqua, and quoted in Van Riebeek's journal, these people would seem to have been a tribe of Bushmen still clinging to the rocks of the Cape peninsula. He stated that they never remained long at peace with any one, and could not live without robbing and murdering ; their object was to surprise one tribe or the other when at the weakest. They had so served him when he had been defeated by other tribes from the interior, and when he lay with his few remaining people and cattle in his houses, wounded and helpless, his people scattered in flight and concealed here and there, then it was that they carried off his cattle as well as cruelly murdered all who could not offer any resistance, even women and children.

The habits here described are so at variance with the more indolent mode of life in which the normal Hottentot was so prone to indulge, that one feels almost forced to the conclusion that these marauders must have belonged to the more energetic Bushman race, who harboured a feeling of revenge against the pastoral intruders into their ancient territories.

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Assertions have often been made regarding the teeming Hottentot population of the southern angle of the African continent at the time of the arrival of the first Dutch settlers. Such assertions certainly appear very wide of the mark. It has been stated that when Van Riebeek landed Oedasoa's kraal was about half a day's journey from the fort, that its position could be seen across the bay, and that he was encamped there with many thousands of people.

The number both of the people and cattle of these tribes seems frequently much exaggerated, a thing not to be wondered at when we know the indefinite expressions used by them to express large numbers. Many thousands of a purely pastoral people, whose sole means of subsistence was their cattle, could not have lived together in one spot in such a country. The immense size of the herds which would be required for their support would destroy the pasturage, by treading it under foot, before it could be grazed off. South Africa has afforded fit and numerous illustrations of this destruction of the herbage in the formation of expeditionary camps or lagers, and the loss of live stock which follows from the cause alluded to almost as a necessary consequence.

There is not in fact the slightest reliable evidence to be discovered that the Hottentots were ever a very numerous race. They were certainly congregated more densely from the Cape to the northward, along the western coast, than to the eastward of that promontory ; but even here there does not appear to have been a single tribe or clan capable of bringing two or three thousand men into the field.

The idea of a powerful nation in the Hottentot mind was exemplified in 1874, when they boasted of their ability to drive the white man from the Diamond Fields. The most powerful of the Korana clans never exceeded a thousand, and they considered themselves invincible when they spoke of their entire tribe being able to marshal nearly three thousand fighting men. A few hundred warrior-herdsmen appears to be the maximum that the majority of the Cape tribes could muster.

The following is an estimate of the probable strength of the various Hottentot tribes near the Cape at the time of the landing of Van Riebeek : —

The Cochoqua, in two divisions, one under Oedasoa, the other under Gonnema, 1,000 men.

The 'Gora ('Kora) chouqua, under 'Choro, 600 or 700 men.

The little Chariguriqua or Grigriqua, 300 men.

The Goringhaiqua, under Gogosoa, 300 men.

The Goringhaikona, under Captain Harry, 18 men.

These estimates are exclusive of women and children.

Of the other tribes mentioned in the early records, the numerical strength is not given, but the Hancumqua are stated to have been the greatest and most powerful of all the race of greasy Hottentots, whom Van Riebeek described as dull, stupid, lazy, stinking people. The above, however, is sufficient to enable us to arrive at some approximate conclusion with regard to their total number. The five Cape tribes mentioned could furnish 2,268 men, who would represent a mixed population of some thirteen or fourteen thousand souls ; and if the remaining tribes averaged as many, the total Hottentot race did not exceed thirty-five or forty thousand people. As it is more than probable that in the confusion of the descriptions given of these people by the early settlers some Bushman tribes are included in the list of names quoted by them, forty thousand may be above, rather than below the real number.

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From a review of the foregoing facts, it would seem that the following deductions may be drawn :

1st. That these nomadic tribes were few in number, and were evidently constantly on the move from place to place in search of water and pasturage. These very migrations prove that they could not have been so numerous as some writers have stated, or they would necessarily have come into frequent collision with one another ; but the fact was they wandered about, and still it was found that there was always plenty of room to spare, showing that the country, except in a few favoured localities, was very sparsely populated.

As an illustration of this constant habit of migrating, Oedasoa removed from Table Bay to Saldanha Bay, in search of pasture, and on his arrival there found the Grigriqua and Korachoqua had migrated thence to the interior for the same purpose.

2nd. That at the time of their discovery the Hottentot tribes had only comparatively recently arrived at the southern extremity of the continent, which is demonstrated by the fact that the original inhabitants not only still remained a distinct people, but were not yet conquered, even in the Cape district itself. Thus we find that there were continual hostilities between them and the Bushmen, or Sonqua. Van Riebeek, in his Journal, writing of these Bushmen or Sonqua, says they never had any other means of subsistence than plunder, their stock was not their own, but robbed from the Cochoqua and others, who on that account pursued them on every opportunity, and on coming up with them put them to death without mercy. They also plundered many people, not only of their cattle, but of their women, which robbery and abduction were much practised in war by all these tribes.

3rd. That the migration of these Hottentots through such a country, and with such inhabitants, must have been a very slow onward movement, and that no rapid acquisitions of territory could have been made by them, both their own character and the formidable obstacles presented by the natural features of the country forbidding any other conclusion. It is quite certain that all the great mountain passes and fastnesses were in the hands of the aboriginal race at the time of their arrival, and there must have been a long struggle before even the barrier of the Hottentots Holland mountains could have been passed to the eastward.

When we reflect upon the great stress which is everywhere laid upon the mildness and amiability of the Hottentot character in the olden time, we shall at once recognise how little fitted these herdsmen must have been, trammelled as they were with the safe-keeping of their flocks and herds, to have broken through such cordons of energetic and intrepid Bushmen as those who held the formidable and almost impregnable mountain barriers. The difficulty they had in overcoming these obstacles will become more and more apparent as we proceed with our investigation.

And now before proceeding to the second head of our inquiry, the fourth conclusion to which we are led is that these Cape tribes were neither all annihilated, nor reduced to serfdom, but that a considerable number fled from the danger which threatened them and migrated to the north and north-east, and that their descendants are now to be found amongst the present Koranas and Griquas.

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THE TRIBES OF THE WEST COAST


It is quite evident that when the Hottentot race commenced its southern migration along the western coast about the end of the fourteenth century, the tribes did not move onward in a dense body, but, as in every other native migration we have been able to trace, one tribe or group of clans followed the other in a straggling, scattered manner, some lingering in the rear while others were pushing on in front like the advanced guard of the main body ; and we find from the report of the voyage of the Bode in 1677 that some of these loiterers were still to be found as far to the north as 12° 47' lat. S.

We will on the present occasion only consider those tribes which are now found along the west coast, viz. (a) the Namaqua, (b) the Berg Damaras, (c) the Ovaherero or Damaras, and (d) the Ovambo.

The Namaqua.

This tribe of Hottentots was at one time found much farther to the southward than at present, as in the first days of the Dutch settlement they were the neighbours of the Grigriqua and Cochoqua. The latter people informed the Commander Van Riebeek that they were Hottentots like themselves, dressed in skins, living in mat huts, and subsisting on cattle. They were described as being men of tall stature, they were armed with bows and assagais, and their breasts were protected by a large piece of dry hide like a gorget or breastplate, which neither assagai nor arrow could penetrate.

They also used shields in war, and thus in defensive armour had made a considerable advance upon the more primitive mode of fighting still retained by the Cape tribes. They were at that time advancing towards the south, but such was the number of their flocks and herds that they could, although divided into four camps, migrate but slowly.

Their near approach gave rise to a succession of disputes and skirmishes between themselves and the Cochoqua. After this they appear again to have fallen back, for in 1659 a bartering party of the Dutch advanced as far as the lower Oliphant's river, when they heard of the Namaqiia living seven or eight days' journey north of where they then were.

In 1661 Van Meerhof visited them. The foremost of them he met near the site of the present town of Clanwilliam, the greater part of the remainder were then located around the Khamiesbergen. He described them, after seeing tribes of smaller made Hottentots near the Cape, as half giants. Their chief Akembi treated both him and his party very kindly, and Van Meerhof succeeded in negotiating a peace between them and the Cochoqua. This was done from no particular love for the natives, but in order to facilitate their own trade.

The lucrative character of this bartering may be surmised, and the anxiety of the Dutch to extend it will be understood when we learn that in the early days of this traffic a bottle of brandy worth sixpence was considered the fair value of an ox in their exchanges with the natives. All the Dutch sought for in those days was the cattle of the natives, with which the latter, who had but few wants and loved their herds, were frequently very reluctant to part. Whatever expeditions were undertaken into the interior were to carry out this one object, and none other.

The same one-sided way of bartering appears to have continued until 1685, when the Governor, Van der Stel, visited the Namaqua clans himself, hoping in his progress to discover gold or silver, and to reach Vigiti Magna. But he failed to attain either of these objects. He displayed such an amount of overbearing cruelty towards the victimised Namaqua that they rose in self-defence, and he was forced to make a somewhat hasty retreat.

This uncalled for ill-treatment laid the foundation of future troubles, and in 1689 the Namaqua came down frequently with hostile intentions as far as the Berg and Twenty-four rivers. No other inhabitants were then found in the wide extent of country between the grazing grounds of the Cape tribes and the Great river except these Namaqua hordes and the groups of Bushmen who were its original proprietors.

Even as late as 1797, when the boundary of the Colony extended as far as the Onder Bokkeveld, Barrow found that the wild and almost unknown country beyond was inhabited by Bushmen alone, showing that the Hottentots in their southern migrations always kept within a certain zone, extending parallel with the coast line. In travelling through the country beyond this, a strong escort was required as a protection against the irate savages.

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In 1797 the Namaqua were found to be possessed only of flocks of sheep and goats, their great herds of cattle had already disappeared. At one time in the country between the Khamiesberg and the Orange river numerous tribes of Namaqua possessing vast herds of cattle used to live, who dug deep wells in the beds of the periodical streams, and covered them over to prevent evaporation. But at the time of Barrow's visit the country was desolate and uninhabited. In less than a century the original inhabitants had dwindled to four hordes, who were in a great measure subservient to the Dutch.

The Namaqua like the Kaffirs always paid the greatest attention to their cattle, and like the latter had a fashion of giving artificial directions to the horns of their oxen, the Namaqua, however, confining the shape of the horns to a spiral line something like those of the koodoo.

This custom seems to have been a very wide-spread one, not only among these tribes of Hottentots, but also among the Amaxosa, Amampondo, Amazulu, and even some of the tribes to the north of the Kalahari and towards Ngami. The same method of ornamenting their cattle was practised by some of the inhabitants of Northern Africa in very ancient times, a fact which is found depicted in some of the old Egyptian paintings.

The Namaqua women were remarkable for the same prominences of body as those before noticed belonging to other tribes. Some of the younger women, although they had figures which might have been considered elegant, had the same conformation of certain parts of the body as the Bushwomen and the other Hottentots, yet it was in a less degree than is usual in the former, though more so than in those of the latter. In women who had borne children the breasts were disgustingly large and pendent, the usual way of giving suck to a child when carried on the back was either by throwing one of them over or under the shoulder.

In this way they agree with the Latin satirist's description of Ethiopian women on the borders of Egypt. In the women of ancient Egypt enormous protuberances of body were very common, and have been attempted to be accounted for by various authors from a variety of causes. The men of this particular tribe, however, were taller in stature than the tribes farther to the south, and less robust.

The ancient weapons of the Namaqua were like those of the other Hottentot tribes, the bow and arrow. The country formerly abounded with elands, hartebeests, gemsboks, quaggas, and zebras, together with the giraffe, rhinoceros, and great numbers of beasts of prey. In allusion to the great diminution in the quantity of their game, and the loss of their cattle, an old Namaqua woman who was asked by the traveller Thompson if she could remember the first arrival of the Christians amongst them, replied that she had good reason for remembering it, for whereas before they came she knew not the want of a full meal, it was now a difficult thing to get a mouthful !

This individual was the oldest woman met with among the natives, and produced a daughter who headed five generations.

In 1797 the Namaqua in their reduced condition were in great dread of the Bushmen. They represented these as such a cruel, bloodthirsty race of people, that they never spared the life of any living thing that fell into their hands. And the Namaqua stated that even to their own countrymen who had taken up their residence with the Dutch, they behaved with atrocious cruelty. These poor wretches when retaken by their countrymen were generally put to the most excruciating tortures.

A party of Bushmen, so the Namaqua informed Barrow, living in that part of the country, having captured a Namaqua Hottentot, set him up to the neck in a deep trench, and wedged him so fast with stones and earth that he was incapable of moving. In this position he remained the whole night and part of the next day, when he was discovered and liberated by some of his companions. The unfortunate fellow declared that he had been under the necessity of keeping his eyes and mouth in perpetual motion the whole day to prevent the vultures from devouring him.

From what can be gathered of the condition of the Bushmen in an undisturbed state, one cannot help suspecting that fearful cruelties must have been frequently committed by the intruding Hottentot tribes upon the aboriginal inhabitants of this portion of South Africa, and thus roused in their breasts this feeling of bitter revenge.

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In 1813, at the time of the Rev. J. Campbell's first visit to the country, few of these people were left in Little Namaqualand except such as had congregated in the neighbourhood of Pella, near the left bank of the Orange river. Here the principal inhabitants of the place were the Namaqua, of whom one hundred and seventy-four were men, two hundred and three women, twenty-two young men, forty-six young women, and one hundred and ninety-one children.

They lived in low circular huts, like the Koranas, composed of long rods, or withes, stuck into the ground at both ends, with mats made of rushes fastened over them. They differed from the Koranas in this, that in the inside they dug about a foot or a foot and a half into the ground, in which they slept, to protect them, as they said, from the wind.

They lived entirely on their cattle, and having no trade and few wants, seemed to spend most of their time in groups conversing together. These people were under two captains, named Owib and his son Bundelzwart ; there was also another called Vlegermuis (the Bat). Few of them were tall. They were generally of slender make, and were a timid people.

The Namaqua country extended along the sea coast as far as the Damara.

The tribes to the north of the Orange river possessed in abundance homed cattle, sheep, and goats, which were assigned to the care of the children and boys. The women made the mats of rushes for covering their huts, milked the cows, the same as with the Koranas, built the huts, and dug roots for food. When they married, the husband gave cattle to the parents of the female and also slaughtered some for a feast. They danced to music from flutes made of reeds and roots of the camel-thorn tree, and used drums made of skins.

Two parties often had a set fight, those who conquered seized the cows of their opponents and drank their milk, after which they returned them. The men manufactured wooden vessels for holding milk, and bowls, assagais, rings, axes, and knives ; they also dressed hides and dug wells. Their numbers had been reduced by wars of former times and broils among themselves.

Their wars generally originated in disputes about cattle, in which their chief wealth consisted, and frequently in one tribe boasting its superiority over another, which rousing the pride and rage of the party insulted, they flew to arms to ascertain which tribe was the strongest. Their object in war was to rob each other of cattle, and this gave rise to their fighting ; their battles were almost always in the vicinity of their cattle-kraals. If they took prisoners, some of these were killed, others liberated. It was rarely that a Namaqua left his own country even on a temporary visit to another.

Those who lived in the neighbourhood of the Great river in 1813 were in a state of perpetual terror of that irrepressible marauder Africaander, the least rising of dust or sand excited great consternation, as they felt sure that Africaander was coming against them. In 1823 the number of the Namaqua had still further diminished to the south of the Orange river ; by that time all who could escape across the stream had done so, and were then living to the north of it.

The Namaqua, like the rest of their race, were divided into a variety of separate clans governed by a chief whose authority was very circumscribed and precarious. The existence of such a number of subdivisions to the north of the Orange river would suggest the idea that in addition to those who managed to escape from the pressure of the advancing Europeans by recrossing it, some portion of them had in all probability always remained there, and thus preserved the herds of cattle which were so much coveted by the Dutch.

In the south, those who had remained behind in the kraals bordering on the Colony had been long ago exterminated or reduced into servitude by the Boers. Thompson found only one independent tribe of these people living to the southward of the Orange at a place called t'Kams, near Pella. This Pella, which we have before mentioned, had become one of the landmarks in the history of the Koks and their Griqua followers, as it was from this spot that they started upon their migrations to the eastward along the valley of the Orange river.

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The features of the locality were striking and characteristic. Pella was described as standing at the foot of the Kaabas mountains, which rose in frowning grandeur almost perpendicularly to the height of about two thousand feet. It was about half an hour's walk from the 'Gariep, which flowed through a narrow rocky pass, forming a rapid between the two opposing ranges.

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It was here that Thompson visited the last of the Namaqua tribes left to the south of the river. They were called Obseses,. i.e. the Bees, from a species which associates amicably with the common sort, a name probably adopted from the fact that this horde was formed by the association of the fragmentary portions of a number of those which had been previously broken up and scattered.N

Notes: One of the Namaqua clans north of the Orange was called Kannamaparrisip, or the veldschoen wearers.

These people, in common with every one else who unfortunately fell within the reach of the ruthless Africaander, suffered many atrocities at his hands and were plundered of much of their cattle. We will however defer our remarks upon this point until we examine more fully into the career of the notorious Africaander himself, and the influence his advent into the country had in giving an impetus to the migrations of several other tribes.

The sufferings however which the Namaqua endured both on this and on previous occasions had no effect in teaching them forbearance to those whom they found weaker than themselves, and whom they attacked in their turn ; and it cannot be questioned but that they were guilty of acts of equal barbarity, not only upon the Bushmen, but also upon the Ovaherero, or Damara clans, living to the north of them.

The Namaqua, like the kindred Korana tribes, were ever making forays upon their weaker neighbours, and of the deliberate cruelty practised by them in some of these cattle raids upon the unoffending Ovaherero there is abundant evidence.

In one that has been recorded, an unfortunate Damara lad stated that these Hottentots, after shooting his parents, had invariably mingled his scanty rations of milk with wood ashes before they allowed him to drink it. This treatment was continued to the last possible stage of starvation, when he managed to escape by crawling away.

Baines gives other instances of still greater atrocity. In a foray near Bokberg, a Herero cattle herd having been caught in the kraal by them, these Namaqua marauders cut off both his hands at the wrists. At Barmen Baines saw several hapless women, who had been mercilessly crippled in some of these cattle raids by the same inhuman wretches, who had cut off their feet as the easiest way of obtaining their iron anklets !

As the Namaqua have always clung to the zone of coast land into which their forefathers migrated, and as they retreated northward along the same line when the irresistible pressure from the south prevented all further progress in an opposite direction, their movements did not have such an effect in accelerating the annihilation of the old Bushman race as those of the tribes that sought an asylum in the interior of the country and therefore invaded the very heart of the widespread domains of the ancient aborigines.

This retrograde movement of the Namaqua, which they were able to carry into effect without trenching upon the claims of any other emigrant tribes, seems to demonstrate the additional fact that a considerable interval of time elapsed between the southern migration of the Hottentot hordes and those who followed upon their trail, and that for a long period an extensive tract of unusurped Bushman territory intervened between them, until the receding wave of the nomadic Namaqua rolled over the space and broke in restless depredations upon the once distant boundaries of the Ovaherero.

The following tribes, although they do not belong to the Hottentot family, may yet be conveniently considered in this place, as these tribes on the western coast afford us a clearer illustration of the sequence in which the migration of the various tribes to the south took place than those of the central, eastern, and south-eastern portion of the continent, where they have been frequently huddled together and mixed up most confusedly by the occurrence of wide extended native wars.

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The Berg-Damaras.

These people most probably represent the pioneer tribes of the dark-coloured races that first followed upon the trail of the yellow-skins. They seem to possess a mixture of affinities, the counterparts of which among other people are only to be found in distinct races that have no present connexion with each other Thus, whilst they possess the physical characteristics of the Bantu nations, and are as a rule even blacker than the Ovaherero, and although they are as different in colour and stature from the Hottentots as it is possible for two races to be, still we find the remarkable fact that one language is common to both peoples.

The territory which the Namaqua inhabit is entirely separate from that of the Berg-Damara, still none the less is the language of both nations the same. The difference between the Namaqua and Korana dialects is greater than that between the language of the Namaqua and Berg-Damara.

But these people are neither pastoral like the nomadic Hottentot hordes, nor are they agricultural like many of the more advanced of the Bantu nations ; they inhabit the rock-shelters of the mountains, or build small temporary huts in concealed positions like the Bushmen. They carry the same weapons as the Bushmen, a bow and quiver of arrows ; the iron points for war and poisoned arrows are quite like those of the Bushmen. Besides these, they have arrows without iron points for killing guinea fowls and other small game.

These are the weapons of those who remain unsubdued in the Waterberg, and therefore in all probability the ancient arms of their race ; while the men of the clans that have been partially subjugated by the neighbouring tribes are mostly armed with a miserable spear with an iron point, which is often only about the length of a finger, and a stick hardly four or five feet long, together with one or two rude kerries, i.e. a stick a foot and a half long with the thick root end as the knob. These are chiefly employed as throwing weapons.

Here then we find in this one race distinctive features which characterise the other three, still, notwithstanding these separate points of similarity, the Berg-Damara are a nation by themselves, and apparently quite distinct from the Ovaherero, the Namaqua, and the Bushmen.

Their number is estimated at about thirty thousand. They inhabit the mountainous parts in the south-west, west, and north-west of Hereroland, that is to say the mountains between Rehoboth and Otyimbingue, to the westward as far as is habitable, the Erongo mountains, the Etyo mountains, and the Waterberg, and to the north and north-west half way to Ondonga ; how far they live in the interior is unknown. They have not, however, been found in the hunting veld of the Bushmen to the east. Of their political condition very little is known.

In individual families the house-father is the natural head, but for the rest it appears that every one who can provide for his sustenance can have his own way of doing and leaving undone what he likes. To the north of the Waterberg, however, a few chiefs have apparently authority over several thousand people.

From the extremely slight cohesion of this nation, it is also to be explained why it hardly ever comes forward as acting independently. Although enslaved, robbed, and murdered on all sides, somehow it never gathers its strength to go against its enemies. And yet such an undertaking might prove very dangerous to its oppressors, for the nation is numerous, and in possession of the mountains, the natural strongholds of the country. Instead, however, of thus combining for defence, at most a family when attacked will attempt resistance. In the wars between the Namaqua and Ovaherero, the Berg-Damara are found on either side, being employed on that of the Namaqua as spies and accomplices, following for the sake of booty. Dacha smoking seems to have sapped the last vestige of energy out of these people in the Waterberg.

As regards the mode of living among the Berg-Damara, it is to be remarked that it is the very meanest imaginable. Few of them possess cattle of any description, at most they try to get a few goats, all the remaining cattle which falls into their hands is eaten up at once, on which occasions they can consume a very large quantity of meat. Although they are as little herdsmen as hunters, they kill all the game they can, and for this purpose spare no trouble in making pitfalls, immense abattis into which they drive the game, as well as now and then organising a chase.

Such is only the case, however, when game fortunately happens to be in the neighbourhood of their dwelling places. They do not, like the Bushmen or Hottentots, follow up the game with any earnestness, or undertake distant hunting expeditions for the sake of capturing it. Veld-kost, i.e. everything which is eatable and procurable in the desert, is their ordinary sustenance. All these things are sought for and gathered, and, whenever possible, a considerable store for bad times is kept on hand.

Their principal nourishment is locusts and uintjes. When the locust season comes, their time of harvest arrives, and when the country is being devastated by locusts the Berg-Damara rejoices, for the time has arrived when he is able without much trouble or exertion to fill his belly to his heart's content. The locusts which are caught are roasted at the fire, and crushed into powder, which can be preserved in this state for a long time.

Besides these two chief articles of food, there are many other things which afford a living to the Berg-Damara ; here he finds a nest of wild bees, there he digs up an anthill to rob the industrious little creatures of their winter provision of grass seeds ; the thorn tree offers its gum, all sorts of berries, which chiefly consist of skin and kernel, all kinds of thick caterpillars are collected, mouse holes are dug up, and in general all that can be chewed or digested forms the food of the omnivorous Berg-Damara.
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They live in bush huts of a very peculiar form, somewhat in the shape of a cone. A few long poles whose points meet together form the framework, and over and through these as much bush-work is put as will form at least a shelter just big enough for a fire near the entrance and sleeping places for the family. The household furniture is likewise simple. Earthen pots are manufactured by rolling out clay to slender sausage-like sticks and laying them in a spiral form so as to construct the sides, then the half dried wall is stroked smooth with the hands. They may have a few wooden buckets and bowls, the last always of an oval shape, and probably a wooden mortar, i.e. the trunk of a tree hollowed out, in which the locusts and uintjes are pounded with a wooden pestle.

Although it would be incorrect to say that they, like the Bachoana and Basutu tribes, were agriculturists, they seem to display incipient germs in the art of cultivation, as wherever a secure spot offers suitable soil and water for a small garden, they take advantage of the situation and plant tobacco, dacha, pumpkins, and melons. In this respect they far surpass the Ovaherero and the Namaqua.

The covering of the men is a belt, with a piece of skin in front and another behind like an apron. The aprons of women are generally adorned with small strings, all kinds of beads, buttons, and small bones. A peculiar custom is that the women, even during the greatest heat of the summer, carry about with them all the skins and skin rugs they possess, so that they may be always prepared for flight. It is from this cause that the women of even the poorest class amongst them are wrapped in furs, as among the Greenlanders. Similar to most of the Bushmen, the Tambukis, and a few other tribes, these people mutilate their hands by cutting off the first joint of one of their little fingers. There are certain families among them that cut out one testicle of every male child.

The Ovaherero take away the children of the Berg-Damara. The revenge which the Berg-Damara takes is to seize and slaughter the cattle of the Ovaherero. The first is a very trifling error in the eyes of the Ovaherero, whereas they look upon the second as a grievous crime, quite like murder. In these thefts the Berg- Damara have a great advantage over their pitiless enemies the Ovaherero, in being accustomed to the rough life of mountaineers, and thus easily escaping from the pursuing commandos which are sent after them.

As mountain climbers they are not excelled by any other tribe in the country, and thus with their hard feet they pass rapidly over the rocks and leave their disappointed persecutors far in the rear. From the smallness and bushlike appearance of their houses, and as their situation is not betrayed by the lowing of cattle, it is no easy task without the assistance of a special guide to discover their position, especially as they are generally concealed in some nook of the mountains. The Ovaherero make short work with those who fall into their hands : the full-grown are murdered, and the children are reduced to abject slavery.

Notwithstanding they omit no opportunity of plundering their bitter enemies, no particular malignity of character is ascribed to them. Much, however, cannot be said in praise of their morality. Polygamy is the order of the day, and each has as many wives as will stay with him. The man has undoubtedly the same right to put away the wife as the wife has to leave the husband, and if one person feels himself stronger than another he will consider himself perfectly at liberty to take away by force any female to whom he takes a fancy.

Among their peculiar customs, the men, although such universal feeders, do not eat hares. The reason given for this is an old story of the hare and the moon. If, to wit, they were to eat the hare, they would become like the hare, which dies and does not return to life ; but if they do not eat the hare, they will become like the moon, which dies, but again becomes alive. Women and children, however, eat the hare, but on such occasions they must bury the animal's fur. The Berg-Damara bow to the stone-heaps of Heitsi Eibib, in the same manner as the Hottentots. This custom they may have copied from them, as many of the Ovaherero do the same. The Berg-Damara of the Waterberg speak of a large black stone situated at a certain spot in the Kaoko mountains, which they term their great-grandfather, and say that they and every other living thing came from it.

The Ovaherero like the Namaqua despise the Berg-Damara as heartily as possible. These, they declare, stand quite on a level with the baboons which inhabit the rocks, and dig up uintjes like the Berg-Damara. Nothing excites the laughter of the Ovaherero so much as to say that the Berg-Damara are as good men as themselves.

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The Ovaherero or Damara.

It is stated upon good authority that the name Herero is an attempt to reproduce the whirring sound of the broad-bladed assagais used by the Ovaherero in their passage through the air, a name which was bestowed upon them by the Ovambo, who had good reason to remember this formidable weapon. Va is one of the forms of the plural prefix of personal nouns common to all South African Bantu languages, which may be rendered the men, sons, or those of, so that the meaning of the name Ovaherero, although not its literal translation, is the men of the whirring assagais.

These Ovaherero are known to have migrated from the north or north-east, but the period of their migration is not known. It cannot, however, be less remote probably than two hundred years. The name Damara is of comparatively recent origin, and is applied alike to Ovaherero, Ovambanderu, and Ovatyimba. The Ovambanderu were originally Ovaherero, but on separating themselves either acquired or assumed the name by which they are now known. Many Ovaherero and Ovambanderu are destitute of cattle and sheep, and live apart from the others, existing very much by the same means and in the same manner as the Bushmen. These, strangely enough, are not called either Ovaherero or Ovambanderu, but Ovatyimba.

We may be allowed then to conjecture that of the three names these people are designated by, that of Ovatyimba, or Watyimba, as it is undoubtedly the oldest, is that they were originally known by, and we are at once led to consider that the cradle of the race is in the land by the waters of Muta Nzige, in the country of the Wazimba recently traversed by the intrepid Stanley.

The Ovaherero, or Damara as they are more commonly called, are the first of the black tribes we meet after passing through the yellow races scattered over that wide tract of country which extends for two hundred miles north of the Orange river, and includes Great Namaqualand and a large portion of the Kalahari desert. They belong, as has been shown, to the Bantu family, are a purely pastoral people, possessing great wealth in cattle and sheep, and are not the less interesting because so much has still to be learnt respecting them. The country they occupy is of vast extent and varying richness, admirably adapted to their requirements. Their neighbours to the north are the group of tribes of which the Ovambo is the most familiar to us.

In 1797 these Ovaherero lived, as now, to the north of the Namaqua. In 1813 the southern boundary of their country was some twenty-five days' journey to the north of the mouth of the Orange river. They were then a numerous people, divided into five principal clans. Their riches consisted in cattle ; while the poor Damaras, who lived in the vicinity of the ocean, frequently entered the service of the Namaqua.

Their chief amusement was dancing to music from a reed, and they also beat on an instrument made of skin resembling a drum. They were often at war with the Namaqua, generally in consequence of their stealing women from each other. Their endeavours were directed to obtaining each other's cattle. The prisoners taken by the Damaras were not put to death, but were made either servants or interpreters. On the death of a rich man they covered his grave with the horns or bones of the cattle he had killed when he was alive, as a proof, from their number, that he was rich.

They appear to have been ever in the same degraded state as that in which they were described in 1861 by the traveller Baines, who then visited them. They were not able to manufacture iron, and the assagais which they used were obtained in barter from the Ovambo, till the incursions of the Hottentots forced them to call their energies about them.

The men of this tribe are of moderate height, and generally well made, of a rich brown colour like the Kaffir ; their hair is generally straightened out and matted in strands three or four inches long with fat and red clay. Their dress consists of from fifty to eighty fathoms of thin leather thongs coiled round the hips, and a small piece of skin between the legs, with the ends brought up and tucked under the cord. Beads, iron rings, and strips of tin and brass are used for ornaments.

The headdress worn by the women of the tribe is of a peculiar description. It is formed of stout hide, bent while still soft to fit the head, and kept in form by rows of ornamental stitching. To this is attached three large ear-shaped appendages, one at each side and one at the back, which are also stitched in such patterns as to give them the proper hollow.

Long strings of iron tubing, which like their assagais and ornaments of metal were formerly obtained from the Ovambo, are worn pendent down the back. The weight of such a headdress cannot be trifling, but for a Damara woman to appear without it, with her shaven head uncovered before her husband, would be considered such a gross and unwarrantable breach of etiquette that even her discovered infidelity would sink into insignificance in comparison.

These people are about the most heartless under the sun. The aged and helpless are left to perish by several tribes, but that a mother should refuse to pull a few bundles of grass to close up a sleeping hut for a sick daughter, until she was threatened with personal chastisement if she neglected it, is almost beyond belief, yet Baines assures us that this was one of the occurrences which he witnessed during his travels among them. He also relates another case of an even more diabolical character. A Damara was found robbing his sister, a blind girl, of the food apportioned to her. When this was forbidden, he, in revenge, enticed his sister to a distance in the veld and there abandoned her in her helpless condition to be devoured by hyenas.

Cruel as was the treatment these Ovaherero received at the hands of the Namaqua, they made forays of an equally unjust character upon the Bushmen. Those who believe, writes the observant Baines, in the Arcadian innocence of the savage state, and fancy the poor natives know no ill till it is taught them by wicked Christians, ought to have a few weeks' experience of these people. Heaven knows some of us are bad enough, but the utter want of decency, and even of common humanity, apparent here seems to be the rule, and not the exception.

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The Ovambo.

The Ovambo are living still farther north than the Ovaherero, and belong to a group of tribes that should be called the Avare , but from white men having first made the acquaintance of this branch we call the whole Ovambo.

They are described by Mr. Henry Chapman, F.R.G.S., as a very hospitable people, who must have been — before they were plundered by the Namaqua Hottentots — a rich and industrious nation, capable not only of working in metals, but also of undertaking works of no small importance, such as sinking wells of ninety or a hundred feet in depth, with a spiral path cut round the sides to enable people to descend to the water. Their villages were also fenced in with considerable care, and the huts and out-houses erected by a family have as imposing an appearance as those of a populous village among other tribes.

They trade with the Portuguese. Their oxen constitute the staple on their part, and in consequence of this one of their chiefs, when a foray was made upon his herds, allowed his cows to fall into the hands of his enemies and devoted all his energies to the preservation of his oxen.

It is much to be regretted that so little is known with regard to this interesting series of tribes. Their position on the western coast is an isolated one, cut off from the great lines of commercial traffic ; they have been seldom visited, and consequently only a very few facts have been recorded about them. But even these scattered fragments reveal to us the rich ungarnered field that awaits future investigation.

We find there the representatives of races still remaining distinct, which in other parts of South Africa have been so rudely intermingled that the entanglement has become almost chaotic ; and therefore, although we know but little about these western tribes, the teachings of that little, if rightly read, have an important bearing upon the subject of our inquiry.

Here in considerable portions of this western country, as far north as our present researches carry us, we find tribes or clans of the aboriginal hunter race still persistently maintaining their independence, treated with the same contumely and unreasoning harshness as they have been treated by every other race with which they have ever come in contact, yet amid all the oppressions which have been heaped upon them, still clinging with the same steadfast tenacity to the ancient strongholds of their forefathers, as did their compatriots to the south.

Here we find representatives of the yellow-skinned pastoral nomads, who, driven themselves from the intra-lacustrine regions of Central Africa, fled before the southern advance of the more strongly built men of the darker race. Here again we find representatives of these latter, whose pioneers pressed into the rear of some of the retreating Hottentot tribes, and became so far amalgamated with them that their descendants acquired the language of those with whom they had fraternised to the extinction of their own.

We find that after acquiring the language of the Hottentots, their numbers so increased that their own physical characteristics were thoroughly inherited by the tribes which now represent them, the Berg-Damara of the present day.

We discover that this intermixture of races, giving rise to a seeming paradox, namely that of a dark-skinned people speaking a language allied to that of the Bushman, or the Hottentot, took place at every point upon which the hordes of stronger men advanced. We shall find as we proceed with our investigations that this fact forces itself prominently forward, especially in the migrations of the Amaxosa and other Coast Kaffirs, as well as those of the pioneer Bachoana tribes and some of the advanced clans of the Leghoya, which gave rise to the formation of such Bushman speaking peoples as the Masarwa and others.

We have here also a Bantu race still retaining the primitive hunter stage of existence, yet carrying with them the latent germ which developed in other branches of the family into that wonderful fondness for agriculture for which they have made themselves celebrated.

Here we find in the Ovaherero a tribe of men wearing the staart-riem, a mode of covering which distinguishes the agricultural tribes of the Bachoana and Basutu from the more semi-agricultural Coast Kaffirs, still remaining in a partly pastoral condition ; while, superior to all these, we have the industrious Ovambo, skilled in the working of metals, displaying an energy in overcoming the difficulties of nature unparalleled in any other native tribe of South Africa, exhibiting also in the neatness and extent of their dwellings and in their passionate love for agricultural pursuits, all the characteristic traits of the most advanced of the Basutu tribes, such as the Bakuena, the Bamangwato, and others.

From the foregoing resume we seem to obtain a glimpse of the migratory movements of the two races here brought into contact. In the first place we find amongst those of the yellow-skins the old cave-dwellers who have occupied this portion of the world from a period of such remote antiquity that the advent of the nomadic pastoral Hottentots is perfectly recent. Again we have different phases of the stronger race of dark-coloured men who followed on the trail of the Hottentot hordes.

These phases represent the different waves of migration thrown off like sequent ripples from a common centre, each carrying with it and preserving in a stereotyped manner a facsimile of the social condition and the modes of thought and action of the main central body from which it was derived at the time of its separation ; and each in succession showing the advance which had been made in the conditions of life by the parent stock during the interval which succeeded the previous separation, and by this means affording a reflex view of the various stages through which the parent stem itself had passed, from the time when its people subsisted upon veld-kost until they gradually merged into the hunter stage, whence they became developed from tamers of animals and cultivators of grass-seeds into the pastoral and agricultural tribes of the present day.

Having thus noticed the principal tribes along the eastern shore of the Atlantic, we shall now proceed to gather further particulars about those which proceeded to the south, and of which remnants exist until the present time. The principal of these are at present known under the titles of Korana and Griqua, and as the Koranas are certainly the purest of the Hottentot tribes which still survive, we will commence our investigation with them.


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THE KORANAS


In commencing our examination of the traditions which have been preserved among the Korana clans, we soon discover that they have been able to preserve a more consecutive history than that known of any other branch of the Hottentot race. It is for this reason therefore that its study sheds a clearer and more definite light upon the early migrations of these nomadic hordes than is to be obtained from any other source, and it cannot be doubted but that this elucidation of their wanderings furnishes a key to those of many others.

The earliest traditions of their race were secured by Mr. Kallenberg, for many years a missionary at the Pniel station on the Vaal, which was established especially for the benefit of these people. He was fortunate enough to obtain them from the old people of the tribe who were looked upon as the repositories and guardians of their tribal lore. He says that the traditions of these Koranas are very clear upon the point that their forefathers came from the far north-east interior, where they had dwelt in a land which, from its abundance of water and every good thing requisite for a pastoral people, was described as being almost an earthly paradise.

This description seems to point to the great lake country of Central Africa. They knew nothing of how long their remote ancestors had remained there. From the descriptions given, it would appear that they were driven thence about the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century by tribes which they describe as Bachoana, a stronger race of men than themselves, armed with the bow and battleaxe, and who were themselves pressing down from the north and driving the weaker Hottentot tribes before them as they advanced.

The fugitive tribes fled towards the setting sun, and continued their flight until their progress in that direction was checked by the great waters in front of them, when they turned towards the south, following the shore of the great waters, which always remained on the right hand. The country through which they passed was either unoccupied, or inhabited only by enormous herds of game and scattered tribes of primitive Bushmen. Thus they slowly migrated along the coast-line until they reached the Cape districts, where they settled and lived for some generations.

Such then are the Koran a traditions with regard to the migrations of their forefathers, and such doubtless was the line of migration of all the other Hottentot tribes of which we have treated. As we are now confining our research more especially to the Korana branch of that race, we will for greater explicitness pursue our inquiry under the five following heads, viz. —
(a) The Koranas at the Cape,
(b) The Koranas of the great valley of the Orange river,
(c) The clans of the Middle Veld,
(d) Their migrations along the valley of the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal and towards the north,
(e) Their migrations to the eastward in the basins of the Orange and Caledon rivers.

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(a) The Koranas at the Cape.
All the traditions of this tribe unhesitatingly affirm that their forefathers were at one time settled in the present Cape district, and that they took their title from a chief named 'Kora. With the knowledge of this fact in our possession, we cannot help suspecting that the orthography of Van Riebeek in his rendering of Hottentot proper names was incorrect, and that 'Kora and not 'Gora was the word which ought to have been used, and which we have advisedly adopted in a previous section when writing of the 'Gorachoqua and the kindred tribe of Cochoqua, which from Korana tradition would appear to be merely, as we have suggested, subdivisions of one and the same tribe. These Cape traditions of theirs carry them back not only to the time of the Dutch occupation, but also to some of the visits of the Portuguese.

With regard to their great chief 'Kora, they state that he was the first one with whom the Europeans who settled there made a treaty. The strangers, however, soon began to encroach upon the lands of the natives, and war followed as a natural consequence. 'Kora was then alive. It is not known whether he was slain in battle or not, but it is known that he died young. He left as a successor a son called Eikomo. He also had to defend his territory against the daily encroachments of the new colonists, but he could not long resist them, and he was ultimately driven back to the Brak river.

From that place he went still farther north, until he arrived amongst a numerous tribe of Bushmen who were wandering on the banks of the 'Gariep. Here he entered into a treaty with these people, and settled in the country. Doubtless in this retreat he avoided traversing the country occupied by the Namaqua, the old rivals of his tribe, and in that case would first strike the river between its mouth and the falls.

It was from this point that the Korana clans began to separate and spread themselves, some continuing along the river-valley, others migrating into the Middle Veld, near the present Richmond and Victoria West, where they remained until they appear to have lost all tradition about the Great river.

The early history of the Dutch settlement furnishes some interesting coincidences, which tend to prove the correctness of these tribal traditions. Thus the Koranas give a pedigree of six generations between 'Kora and a chief living in 1836, a period of one hundred and eighty-four years after the landing of Van Riebeek, a length of time which would be about equivalent to the six generations indicated. In 1659 Van Riebeek, having made a distribution of land among the Dutch colonists, the Hottentots and they were involved in war. In 1669 peace was concluded, and the Dutch were permitted to occupy a piece of land stretching three miles along the shore. And in 1673 they were again at war with the Hottentots.

Mr. Backhouse also obtained confirmatory evidence upon this point from a source independent of that from which the above traditionary testimony was obtained. Some of the members of a Korana clan living at Mira-Matchu informed him that the great tribe of the Koranas took its name from 'Kora, an ancient chief under whom they had formerly lived, and that they had descended from a people who inhabited the Cape when the Dutch first took possession of that part of the country.

The unanimity of these traditions seems thoroughly to substantiate the points now under examination, and to establish as historical facts, as firmly as such facts can be established upon native testimony, that the Koranas derived their appellation from a chief named 'Kora, and that their ancestors formed part of the group of tribes which in the days of Van Riebefek occupied the country around Table and Saldanha bays.

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(b) The Koranas of the great valley of the Orange river.

It is worthy of remark that almost in every instance the names assigned to the various rivers and mountains by the natives were more lucid and distinctive, and therefore less likely to lead to erroneous ideas with regard to the several localities indicated, than those bestowed upon them by their more civilised successors.

Thus instead of the entire stream being called by one name, that portion of the Orange river between its mouth and its junction with the Vaal was designated by the former the 'Gariep, the river or great river, in contradistinction to the 'Gij-'Gariep, the yellow river or Vaal, and the 'Nu-'Gariep, the black river or Orange. In speaking therefore of the Koranas of the Orange river, it is the first portion of this great water system, or as we have styled it, the great valley of the Orange river, of which we now speak, and of the Korana tribes which emigrated in that direction.

The backward condition in which many of these Koranas were with regard to a knowledge of metals, even to a very recent period, is not generally known. A considerable number, however, of the migratory clans of the early Koranas equally with the Bushmen were unacquainted with the use of iron, and employed pieces of sharpened bone, flint, and crystal as points with which to tip their arrows.

They also used pieces of split reed as knives for the purpose of cutting their meat ; moreover, these Koranas were also unacquainted with the use of poison to render their arrows more efficacious and fatal, until they acquired this knowledge from the Bushmen, from whom they first obtained their supplies, but who for a long period retained the secret of its manufacture ; and it was only after fraternising with the Bushmen of the 'Gariep for many years that they discovered the method of mixing it for themselves.N

Even to as late a period as 1823 all the Korana clans of the 'Gariep were still armed only with their ancient bows and poisoned arrows. Thus it was that such men as Africaander, Barends, and the Koks became in early days, by the possession of firearms, so formidable, and rose to such importance in the estimation of the surrounding natives.

Notes: Evidence of 'Goggum' Toovenaar, an old Korana interpreter, upwards of eighty years of age, who was born on the banks of the Taba-Tae-boep, or Kat river, running into the 'Gariep or Great Orange river.

A number of these old-fashioned Korana clans appear to have clung more especially to the tract of country immediately above and below the great falls of the 'Gariep. They continued here so tenaciously that this section of them might well have been called the Koranas of the Falls, until the ruthless forays of Africaander drove them higher up the river. These falls are at a spot where the entire volume of the waters of the great river precipitates itself over a ledge into a yawning abyss several hundred feet in depth. They were graphically described by the traveller Thompson as early as the year 1823. These falls possess features of so grand a description that even the Koranas were impressed with a superstitious dread concerning them.

The great waterfall was surrounded by dangerous precipices, where the whole volume of the river was compressed into a channel not more than fifty yards in breadth, whence it descended at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, and rushing tumultuously through a black and crooked chasm, among rocks of a frightful depth, escaped in a torrent of foam. This, however, was only the prelude, the commencement of the scene. Continuing its way through this deep chasm for about a mile, the entire body of water, confined to a bed of scarcely one hundred feet in breadth, descends at once in a magnificent cascade fully four hundred feet in depth.

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The grandeur and sublimity of this scene, however, made little impression upon the Koranas. To them its surroundings only clothed it, amid the gloom of evening, with supernatural terrors., Fortunately, these acted upon the minds of their enemies as well as their own, so that it became a kind of guardian spirit to them ;, while the fastnesses and dens of the surrounding woods and rocks became their strongholds and places of asylum when too closely pressed by their pursuers.

The clans which remained wandering upon the banks of the river were the more insignificant ones of the main tribe ; all the leading branches appear to have migrated to the Middle Veld at a very early period. Of these smaller river clans, none of their history has been preserved from the time of their first migration northward until the commencement of the troublous times which agitated, at the beginning of the present century, the native world of South Africa. The deplorable condition to which they were reduced shortly after that time we shall more fully enter upon when treating of the freebooter Africaander and his exploits.

We will now, before proceeding with the account of the migrations of these people, attempt to draw such a picture of their social economy and character as may give additional life and reality to our study of their further movements, remembering that the description of the habits and customs of one of their clans is a description equally applicable to all, and that in the early portion of the nineteenth century these were the same conditions of life as those which had been handed down to them from their remote ancestors. For long ages they had evidently been an unprogressive race, and what they were in 1800 was but a reflection of what they had been previously, and what they would almost certainly be in the days which were to follow.

The countenances of the Koranas exhibited a total absence of mind, combined with an indescribable habit of drowsiness. The women were complete sovereigns over the cows and milk. Their children seemed playful and active, but in their progress to manhood they lost this disposition. As a rule they lived in separate kraals, each independent of the other, in each of which they had a captain or chief, but his power was only nominal. The rank was hereditary, but the richest man, or he who possessed the greatest number of cattle, had always the greatest influence in the community.

With regard to their cattle, it was the duty of the boys to watch them during the day, unless there was danger of an attack from enemies, when the young men assisted. The cattle were considered so much the property of the husband and wife that the former could not dispose of any of them without the consent of the latter. The women milked the cows, and some of the cattle were killed entirely for their use ; the men had nothing to do with the disposal of the flesh, but the husband in his turn had a similar privilege. In the first case only women partook, in the latter only men. The instance was rare when men and women ate of the same ox or cow.

They had no rite of circumcision like the Bachoana and Kaffirs, but when a boy entered upon the state of manhood a feast was held, and, according to the circumstances of the father, eight or ten oxen were killed in honour of the event. The Koranas were timid and cautious when opposed to Bushmen, but bold in their attacks upon any of the Bachoana tribes. As the different clans assisted each other when attacked, it was rare for any other nation to become the assailants.

Mr. Sass, a missionary who resided for some time among them, states that most of them did not milk their cows in the morning, because their rest would be disturbed by early rising. After a long night's sleep, they would stretch their hands to the warm ashes of the fire to light their pipes, and smoke for a few minutes, and when the heat of the sun increased they crawled to the nearest shade again to indulge in sleep.

About noon the cattle returned from the fields to drink, when with great exertion they bestirred themselves to rise and milk them ; they then drank as much of the milk as they could, after which they smoked and composed themselves to sleep till the coolness of the evening seemed to arouse them a little. This was their ordinary mode of living, except when on journeys, for which they prepared by killing a sheep and eating as much of it as they were able to devour. They then set off, and were sometimes absent five or six days without tasting a morsel more. Like most of the savage tribes, if destitute of food they tied a skin cord around them, which they drew tighter and tighter as they felt the attacks of hunger.

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The Koranas, though superior to the other Hottentots in stature and muscular strength, were greatly inferior to them in moral character. Excessively vain and impudent, they had a great deal more effrontery than true bravery. To a love of plunder they joined an excess of idleness. All the work was done by the women. The only time they shook off their apathy was when they were engaged in the chase, or cattle-lifting, or at one of their dancing festivals. Capricious and insubordinate, they tolerated their chiefs, rather than obeyed them, each recognising his own will as his only law. They were irreconcilable in their hatreds.

The bodies of the women were loaded with beads, — they wore them on their necks, their arms, their loins, and their ankles. Their dress consisted of an apron of small cords, which descended to their feet, and a kaross made from the skins of sheep or other animals sewed together. They anointed their bodies with sheep- tail fat, mixed with a reddish coloured ochre. They consumed a great part of the day in smoking, and left their children covered with vermin and their rush houses in a state of most disgusting filth.

All their energy and vigour appeared to be reserved for their monthly dances. When the moon entered her first quarter the kraal assembled on some favourite elevation, danced to the sound of the tang-tang all night long, and sometimes for eight nights in succession. In this amusement they placed no control on their passions, but abandoned themselves to excesses of which, writes M. Arbousset, it would be a shame even to speak.

One of the most singular customs of these people was that which related to the succession of their chiefs. The eldest son of the captain of the kraal while a lad was hardly allowed to walk, but was kept constantly in his hut, and compelled to drink milk frequently in order that he might grow up a strong man. The milk was handed to him, for he was not allowed to wait upon himself.

When the father considered that he had arrived at the age of manhood, he took two kerries, and presenting one to his son, reserved the other for himself. With these the father and son often fought, but immediately the son managed to vanquish his father by knocking him down upon the ground, the parent on rising commended him, and from that time acknowledged him as the captain of the kraal in his stead.

Like the Bushmen, the Koranas exposed the aged to be devoured by wild beasts, alleging in defence of this cruelty that such people were of no use, and only consumed food which ought to fall to the lot of others.

Having thus obtained a few glimpses of the inner life of one of these Korana kraals, we will once more take up the thread of our investigation with regard to their continued migrations and the influence those migrations had in dispossessing the more primitive Bushmen of their long inherited territories.

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(c) The Korana Clans of the Middle Veld.
From the traditions preserved among some of the members of the Katse and other clans of this tribe, it would appear certain that some of them at any rate migrated direct from the Cape districts to the tract of country in which they for a time first located themselves, that is in or near the present Division of Victoria West. These traditions prove also that they did not arrive there in a body, but as in all other native migrations they joined their new settlement one after the other in a kind of straggling manner, until they became at length a formidable people.

According to the evidence of Hendrik de Katse, an old Korana living on the bank of the Vaal near Pniel, his portion of the tribe came from the old colonial districts about four generations before his time.N The Bushmen in those days, he said, inhabited all the land : there were neither Griquas nor Kaffirs, and the Bushmen lived alone in it. They lived by hunting, and if they had quarrels with one another, they soon made friends again, as is the custom of those who belong to the same people. The Bushmen of those parts called themselves T'hors-qua, but the Koranas styled them Sana. The Bushmen were also called by them 'Tua-'kne — the Krantz or Cave dwellers.

Notes: The narrative of Hendrik de Katse was obtained from him in 1874 by the writer whilst engaged on the geological survey of Griqualand West. He was then about seventy years of age, which would give about one hundred and eighty years since his forefathers migrated into the interior. His information related not only to the origin of the Korana tribe, but took up the thread of the tribal history at the point where that of Mr. Kallenberg ended, and treated also of the disappearance of the primitive inhabitants of the country.

It was the main stem of their tribe which settled here, originally called the Great Koranas, from which all the offshoots or clans were derived. Here they remained for some two or three generations, slowly moving about from place to place, dividing, and subdividing, until they formed about thirty distinct septs, distinguished by different appellations indicative of some peculiarity of their dress or mode of subsistence.

Their only occupations were those of making war upon the aboriginal inhabitants, following the chase, or making forays upon one another's kraals for the purpose of cattle lifting. Some of their kraals possessed large herds of cattle, and also some sheep and goats. Their flocks of the latter, however, were not numerous. The difficulty of driving them from place to place and of protecting them from wild animals doubtless operated against augmenting their flocks to any considerable amount. Many kraals possessed neither sheep nor goats, but only cattle ; some of the weaker clans had been plundered of all, and had retrograded in consequence from the pastoral to the hunter state.

In personal appearance these Koranas, similar to those previously described, were superior to any other race of Hottentots, many of them being tall and possessing an air of ease and good humour about them. They bore an inveterate animosity towards the Bushmen, on account of continual depredations on their flocks and herds. Their wars with the Bushmen were prosecuted with so much rancour that quarter was seldom given on either side, either to old or young. Though possessing similar weapons to the Bushmen, those of the Koranas were superior in size and workmanship, and their poisoned arrows were occasionally feathered.

Their only manufactures were mats, arms, karosses, some coarse earthenware, and a few wooden vessels carved with much labour out of solid blocks of wood. In their earlier days, as before stated, they possessed no iron at all ; their arrow points were made of crystal, or flint, while the sharp edge of a split reed answered the purpose of a knife for cutting flesh. They did not work in iron, such things as knives and hatchets were afterwards obtained either from the Bachoana or the Boers.

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Like the rest of their countrymen they were fond of singing and dancing by moonlight, and of amusing each other by relating fictitious adventures around their evening fires. True to the instincts of their race, whenever they could procure honey they made a very intoxicating sort of mead or hydromel, by fermenting it with the juice of a certain plant, the secret of which was always retained amongst them with great strictness.

Either by copying from their brethren, the Namaqua, or urged thereto by constant hostilities with the Bushmen, or equally frequent squabbles and skirmishes among themselves, these clans of the Middle Veld had made an advance in their mode of warfare, by adopting the use of defensive armour in the shape of shields, which were enormously large and so thick that an arrow or an assagai could not penetrate them. One which Barrow saw was made of the hide of an eland, and measured six feet by four. Their regular attacks were made in large parties of four or five hundred.

Though very good friends among each other while poor, the moment they obtained a quantity of cattle by plunder they began to quarrel about the division of the spoil. On some of these occasions this was carried to such an excess that they continued to fight and massacre each other till very few remained on the field.

Such then remained the conditions of life among these Korana hordes of the Middle Veld, until some of them had so entirely forgotten the traditions of their race that when one of their hunting or marauding parties, on a reconnoitring expedition penetrated as far as the banks of the Great river, or 'Nu 'Gariep, they returned to their friends and told them they had reached the end of the world, where the water went all round its borders ; and it was not until a much later period that any of the Koranas were found hardy enough to cross to the opposite bank of the stream, and discovered that the world continued on the northern side and that a country existed there similar to the one in which they lived.

This discovery had an important bearing upon the future destinies of the Korana race. Their increasing clans began gradually to spread themselves in the direction of the river, moving slowly from stage to stage through the present Richmond Division. At this time the principal branches of their tribe were the Taai-bosches, who represented the main stem of the Great Koranas, and whose chiefs were acknowledged to be paramount over all the others. The first great offshoot from the main trunk was that of the Lynx clan, after which followed the Toovenaars, who again threw off a clan called the 'Gaap or Katse people. These, or portions of their clans, took the lead in the northern migration.

At first only a portion of the 'Gaap or Katse moved onward, the older people belonging to it still lingering behind in the Middle Veld. Even in 1797 a large portion of the Korana tribe was still on the left bank of the 'Nu 'Gariep, but by that time they had commenced congregating more thickly along the banks of the river itself. They were then a very formidable tribe. Their pioneers had struck the 'Nu 'Gariep a little below the present Hopetown, and their advanced parties crossed somewhere between that and the junction of the 'Nu and 'Gij 'Gariep, or Vaal, migrating over the country diagonally until they struck the 'Gij 'Gariep itself near the present Backhouse drift. These people were principally the 'Gaap or Katse and the Toovenaars.

Another body seems to have crossed the river lower down, near where the great escarpment and plateau of the 'Kaap fringes upon the 'Gariep or Great river. These penetrated, in a line of march in the rear and to the westward of the advance of the others, as far as Klaarwater, the site of the present Griquatown, then called 'Gatee t'Kamma. The whole country was then inhabited by Bushmen, and was covered with thick groves of the wild olive tree. The place of their crossing was at the Presala, Prisoca, or Prieska drift.

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The Toovenaars and Katses, on their arrival at the 'Gij 'Gariep, turned and continued their migration up the stream, extending not only as far to the westward as the ridge of the 'Kaap, near Upper Campbell, where one of the clans made a temporary halt, but also along the valleys of the Kolong (the present Hart) and the 'Gij 'Gariep itself, some of them stretching to the north along the former until they came in contact with the Bachoana tribes advancing from the opposite direction. This collision took place about the same time with the advanced parties of both the Taaibosches and the Toovenaars, and thus once more the Koranas came face to face with the very tribes before whom their fathers had fled some centuries previously from the far north-east interior.

In the interval, however, the Koranas had made advances in the art of war, they no longer used the puny stone or bone tipped reed shafts of their forefathers, but had acquired the mystery of rendering their arrows fatal with the deadly poison of the Bushmen. They were no longer a few fugitive hordes, but an advancing formidable tribe of hunter herdsmen, who had been accustomed for several generations to lord it over all with whom they came in contact.

The more confirmed agricultural pursuits of the Bachoana, on the other hand, appear to have deprived them of a portion of the warlike fire which had in earlier ages enabled their forefathers to conquer ; while the Koranas had become more cruel and more daring than any other tribe of their nation. Very soon, therefore, these Bachoana, or Briquas as some writers have called them, found to their cost that they were great sufferers from the proximity of such restless and daring neighbours. Large herds of their cattle were carried off, and their children were also seized and forced into slavery, while in the conflicts which took place between them the assagais of the Bachoana had little chance against the poisoned arrows of the Koranas.

Such, however, was the innate love of plunder which possessed these Koranas, that they were not content with looting the herds of the rich Bachoana tribes, but they frequently turned back to rifle the kraals of their own countrymen whom they had left behind in the old camping grounds south of the Great river. This was especially the case after the advent of the Griquas, and when both they and the Koranas began to possess themselves of firearms.

This acquisition so increased their rage for plunder, that they carried their devastating freebooting expeditions to an extent never before thought of, until their names became a terror to the native tribes, and they were not unfitly styled by one writer the Southern Arabs of the Desert. It was during this period of unrest that the remaining clans of the Middle Veld were frequently exposed to forays made upon them by the more hostile and poorer branches of their own tribe.

A graphic description of one of these attacks was given to the writer, which may form a characteristic ending to our remarks upon these clans of the Middle Veld. The narrator was one Leonard Jagers, a counsellor of the Katse clan, who was present at the time of the attack made upon his parents' kraal. What he remembered of this affair was that at the time he was rather more than three years old, when one morning at day-break his friends suddenly found their camp surrounded. Their assailants opened a heavy fire upon the huts and kraal, which as quickly as they could seize their arms was returned by the inhabitants.

The firing on both sides continued without intermission, or, as Jagers expressed himself, they fired and fired until the smoke was so thick you could not see through it. This was continued all the day, the women and children in the meanwhile remaining concealed in the huts. Nearly the whole time Jagers was lying with his head on his mother's lap, as she was seated on the ground. Late in the afternoon, as the fire was gradually slackening, a stray bullet entered the hut and struck his mother on the breast, piercing her heart, when she immediately fell dead upon him, covering him with her blood. This was the only life sacrificed, no one else was killed on either side.

From this peculiar plan of attack and wonderful waste of powder, it would seem as if the design of the assailants was to make as much noise as possible, and then amid the din and terror inspired by it upon the minds of those who were as yet somewhat unaccustomed to firearms, to get possession of their cattle with as little risk to themselves as possible ; for their intention was evidently to capture and to feast, and not to fight and die. This instance, however, will give a very good idea of what some of the natives have described as the desperate wars which were waged between Korana and Korana for cattle.

Shortly after this, the increasing depredations of the banditti of the Lower 'Gariep, the frequent forays of their own countrymen, and the steady but ever-continued advance of the Whites beyond the colonial boundary, compelled the last of these clans to break up their camps and rejoin once more the different portions of the tribe to which they severally belonged ; and a few years afterwards only a few very insignificant kraals were to be found to the south or on the left bank of the 'Gariep and 'Nu-'Gariep.

These rivers formed the Rubicon of the Korana race. Passing that, they steadily grew in power and daring, pursuing a course of devastation, until tribe after tribe was impoverished or ruined by them, and the terror of their name spread far into the interior, even as far to the northward as the great town of the Batlapin ; and to the eastward until they made the Basutu around Moshesh tremble in their mountain strongholds.

Having arrived thus far with our subject, we will in the next place take their northern migrations into consideration.

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(d) Their Migrations along the Valley of the 'Gij-'Gariep and towards the North.

Before the intrusion of the Koranas into the country north of the Great river in the latter half of the last century, an almost boundless expanse of territory was still in the hands of its primitive owners. To the east and west the stronger races had already passed it, but in doing so had merely skirted its opposite borders along the coast lines. From the north, the Bachoana and Basutu tribes had pressed in like two long sand banks jutting into the broad bosom of an extensive lake ; but we shall find that even the portion of the country into which they had intruded was only partially occupied by them, while in the midst of these wilds there were still numerous clans of Bushmen who had never before the arrival of the Korana intruders seen the face of any other men than those belonging to their own race. Fortunately the native evidence upon this point is clear and definite.

In 1874 when the writer was employed in a geological survey of that portion of the Orange river valley through which these migratory tribes had passed on their northern route, he met, among the precipices of the great 'Kaap plateau, at a spot between the two points where these nomadic Koranas had crossed the river, an ancient Bushman whom the Griquas had named Oude Timmerman. He was found among his ancestral rocks of the 'Kaap, about halfway between the junction of the Orange and Vaal rivers and the black precipitous gorge through which the united streams run, near a place called Bang Hoek, which may be interpreted The Glen of Terror, where the river, hemmed in by great precipices, dashes over a succession of rocks.

He was the oldest looking man the writer had ever seen, and he certainly at the very least must have numbered a hundred years. He had more the appearance of a skeleton with a shrivelled parchment skin drawn over it than anything else. He looked like a man of past ages again revisiting the earth, a fossil man, who bore all the signs of antiquity about him, and was a veritable relic of the past. His legs were covered with the most frightful scars, from the burns he had received whilst cowering over a small fire to impart some warmth to his withered limbs during the severity and frosts of the chilling winters.

He said that he was now living alone, that his wife had gone away to see his two daughters, who were staying at the nearest police camp, that he had descended from a race of Bushman captains, and he then gave the names of the five last descents.

He stated that when he was a child the Bushmen of that part believed that the only people in the world were Bushmen and Lions. We fought, he said, the lions, and hunted the great game, and all the game was our cattle ! In those days the country swarmed with lions and large game ; they were there, and there, and there, wherever you see ! He said when a boy of, as he described it, about ten or twelve years of age,N the first Koranas crossed the Great river, and came into the country where his father and his tribe lived.

The Koranas began to destroy the Bushmen's cattle, and drive them away ; it was after this that the sight of the herds belonging to the strangers became too strong a temptation for them to withstand, and then, he said, we saw that they would kill us all, annihilate us from the earth, for we were not as they, our houses are among the rocks, we are free men, we love the sun !

Notes: The statement of Timmerman would show that the Koranas first crossed the Great river about 1785-90, a date which, although the exact year is not known, must be nearly correct.

A war of extermination was commenced against them by the Koranas. Many of the Bushmen, he said, were shot ; others fled from the country ; a few like himself tenaciously clung to their old haunts, the place of their birth, where they lived out of the usual track, , and could hide themselves in the krantzes.

The bees' nests, he said, were to him what cows were to other men, as he could fill his leather sacks with the honey whenever the nests were full. The place where he and his fathers lived is now called Timmerman's Fontein, and was one of the spots reserved by the Griqua chief Waterboer as a farm for himself. This ancient added with an expression of sorrow that now he was very old, and his only wish was that they would not drive him away, but let him die and leave his bones where his fathers had laid theirs before him.

Such was the somewhat pathetic account of the former condition of the country and its prior occupants, a statement thoroughly substantiated by every old Korana whose evidence could be obtained upon this point. Hendrik de Katse was most emphatic in asserting that the country when they came into it was unoccupied, that it was only filled with the wild game and the Bushmen. The Koranas, he said, after crossing the Great river, traversed the country without hindrance until they arrived on the hills near the present farm Backhouse. At this place a number of Bushmen gathered together, and a large body of them attacked the cattle whilst they were grazing in the veld.

The Bushmen had concealed themselves among the hills, and after the Koranas had finished milking and were driving the cattle out, the Bushmen suddenly attacked them in large numbers. They were all armed with bows and arrows, and some carried also a kind of assagai. They immediately commenced driving off the cattle, when the alarm was given in the camp of the Koranas, who were armed in those days in the same manner as the Bushmen. The Koranas, some hundreds in number, seizing their weapons, followed over the fiats, where they overtook the Bushmen and the cattle. Here a great battle commenced between them.

The Koranas, after two or three hours' fighting, succeeded at last in driving the Bushmen away from the cattle. Seven Koranas were wounded. Then the Bushmen fled towards the drift near Backhouse, and here again the Koranas overtook them, and a great slaughter followed. The bank of the river leading to the drift was covered with dead Bushmen, who fought and struggled until they gained the opposite side, when the Koranas ceased from pursuing them. From that day the drift was called 'Go-'koo-ltmie,N from the great destruction of the enemy there. This, said Hendrik, was the first Bushman war.

Notes: The drift was thus named by the Bushmen themselves, from the merciless way in which they were shot down. The meaning of the word is equivalent to the expression, You showed us no mercy.

A kind of peace was then made. During this peace the division of the Koranas called 'Gaap or Katse settled at the top of the kloof, where Campbell was afterwards built, but after remaining here a short time they again removed, and after a year's absence returned. Three years afterwards another war broke out between them and the Bushmen, who on this occasion came from the Langeberg. The remnant of those they had first come in contact with were at this time living intermingled with the Koranas, subsisting on the honey of the 'Kaap.

This statement evidently confirms that of the old Bushman captain, and shows that the Bushmen with whom the Koranas were first at war were those inhabiting the rocks of the 'Kaap, which would include the clan of 'Nambe, and of which Maarman must have been the captain, so that he obtained his name from some Dutch-speaking Korana or some of the Bastaards who followed shortly afterwards.

The Langeberg Bushmen, continued De Katse, came down in a great commando upon them, and surrounded their camp in the night. In the morning the Koranas were perfectly unaware of their danger, and after milking their cows, sent the cattle out as usual. As soon as they arrived at the great vlei (Upper Campbell) the Bushmen sprang out of the long grass and reeds upon them, seized the herds, and drove them rapidly off. Three of the Koranas were killed in the vlei, and three were wounded ; but the alarm being given, they overtook the raiders before they got clear away.

An obstinate struggle took place, and they fought for some time, but at last succeeded in driving the Bushmen clear of the cattle and into some deep kloofs near the high ridge where the road passes. Here the Bushmen stood at bay, but a great number were slain.N The remnant fled, and the Koranas taking up their spoor, followed on it, but did not overtake them. They found the skulls of seven of them in one spot, however, and a much larger number at a place farther on. These were evidently men who had died during the flight from their wounds and the poison of the arrows, and who had been afterwards devoured by the hyenas which abounded in those parts. The routed Bushmen succeeded in gaining the Langeberg without being again overtaken by the pursuing Koranas.

Notes: This advantage was very likely obtained from the large shields, which we have already learnt these Koranas carried, and which enabled them to approach the Bushmen with comparative safety.

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In those days, and in that battle 'Ku-'nap-soop was the great captain of the Koranas, and his children are living now. This was the second war. After that there was peace, and the Koranas moved away from Campbell and occupied the land near the Klip drift (the present Barkly), and made their kraal near the great camel thorn there.N It was the great tree on the ridge near the poort, on the right bank of the river.N2 They had enjoyed a long time of peace, when after some years the Bushmen east of the Vaal gathered all their tribes together, and seizing the favourite pack ox of the Koranas, upon which they rode, drove it to the hills and there slaughtered it.

The Koranas, indignant at this insult, followed on the spoor, and discovered the Bushmen at their place of feasting. The Koranas came there in the night, surrounded the place, and lay still until morning. When the day broke, the Koranas called out to the Bushmen, and asked them to give up the ox, but when they found it had been slaughtered, they attacked the Bushmen so warmly that three fell and the others fled, and no Korana was wounded that day. This was the third and last war of the Katse clan with the Bushmen of the Vaal. It was called the War of the Pack Ox.

Notes 1: This tree escaped the ruthless axe of the diamond diggers until late in 1876. It was a landmark which could be seen many miles.

Notes: 2: In 1874 the writer visited this spot, and found on the hill on the opposite side of the river, near the site of the old Korana camp, the place where the Bushmen on the look-out had formed two or three screens of loose stones, from which they could watch whatever was going on in the camp without exposing themselves to view.

There was peace from those days, and many of the Bushmen came and mixed with the Katses and lived under them. Thus it is that the Katses understand the Bushman tongue, and the Bushmen the Katse's, although they are two languages. After that there was war between the Koranas, one clan with the other. Many years afterwards other Bushmen came from the mountains and fought with the Koranas, but they were altogether destroyed, and then the missionaries came into the land, and the Katse people have dwelt at Pniel unto this day. The captain of the Katses in 1874 was Andries Kats — his father was a great captain, but he was killed and devoured by a lion.

Thus ended Hendrik de Katse's somewhat quaint description of the early movements of that portion of the Korana tribe to which he belonged. We will now revert to the second division, which, passing the river at Prieska drift, advanced through the country rather more to the westward, until they made a temporary halt at 'Gatee-t'Kamma, afterwards chosen by the missionaries as the site of their Griqua station, to which the name Griquatown was subsequently assigned.

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At this time the nearest of the Bachoana tribes appears to have been the main branch of the Barolong, then staying at Taung, the place of the Lion, under their chief Tao or Tau, the Lion. This place was situated on the Upper Hart river, then called the Malalarene, while the lower portion of the same stream was distinguished as the Kolong.

The Koranas were then under 'Kunapsoop or Taaibosch the Elder, the paramount chief of the Great Koranas. The Barolong chief, upon hearing of their advance into that part of the country, came to pay them a visit, and after an apparently friendly interview departed. After a lapse of time Tau paid them another visit, accompanied by a large number of his people. The old Korana captain, thinking they had come in the same friendly manner as before, hastened to meet them, and offered to the chief, according to their custom, sundry articles of food for himself and his people.

The chief Tau however was meditating treachery, and his followers had concealed under their skin karosses assagais broken short. Noticing a convenient opportunity, they suddenly displayed their perfidy, and most treacherously murdered 'Kunap-soop, with a large number of his people.

After this dastardly attack Jan Taaibosch the Elder, or 'Knon-bil, was unanimously declared chief. He rallied the Koranas, and crossed the Malalarene in pursuit of Tau and his people, who were on the way back to their own country. The Koranas overlook them, and a battle ensued in which the Barolong were defeated and driven away. Following up this advantage, they pursued the retreating Barolong to the great place of Tau.

Here he turned at bay, four battles were fought with him and some of the Batlapin, who were then in a state of vassalage under the Barolong, and who had contracted intermarriages with the Bushmen. In the end they forced the Barolong to leave the country, when they retired as far as Setlagole for refuge, a place nearly one hundred miles farther to the north. The chief Tau, it is said, died of his wounds.

After fighting and defeating the Barolong, most of these Koranas removed and settled in the conquered territory. Rijt Taaibosch occupied Patuni or 'Nukuni, and the Korana captain 'Khammakose died at 'Nukuni. It was long subsequent to these Korana victories over the Barolong that the Griquas came and settled with their missionaries at Klaarwater.

These Koranas attempted at various times to push their predatory inroads far to the north, attacking not only the different branches of the Batlapin, but also of the Batlou, the Bakuena, the Bangwaketse, the Leghoya, the Bataung, and others. These attacks were carried on so pertinaciously that some of the branches of these tribes lost all their cattle, and were reduced to the greatest extremities. In all their settlements cattle lifting seems to have been their chief employment and amusement.

Never before in the history of their tribe had they possessed such an opportunity of developing their powers of acquisitiveness, and it certainly cannot be said that they did not avail themselves of it to the utmost. Some of their kraals depended entirely upon these raids as a means of support. As long as the captured cattle lasted, there was feasting and dancing, rejoicing and singing, but as soon as the supply was exhausted a preparation of bows and poisoning of arrows commenced for another foray.

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As a demonstration of the deplorable effects of these continuous depredations upon many of the surrounding tribes, we learn that Intshe, the Ostrich, a son of Inkwane, who at one time possessed a great many cattle, lost them all in one of these attacks, and was reduced to such utter distress that he and the remnant of his people were obliged to seek shelter among the wild and much despised Bushmen, in order to obtain subsistence. This fact illustrates at the same time that these wild Bushmen could not have been the remorseless and bloodthirsty creatures they have been so frequently depictured, seeing that we find them not only in this case, but in numerous other instances, affording an asylum to many fugitives under similar circumstances.

In all these attacks the principal weapons of the Koranas appear to have been the ancient bows and arrows of their race, which continued to be used until the settlement of the Griquas at Griquatown, about which time firearms were introduced by the Koks and their guardian missionaries.

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ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS KORANA CLANS


During this early period the formidable character of the Koranas was augmented by the accession to their ranks of a powerful ally in the person of a fugitive or outlaw from the Cape Colony named Jan Bloem, variously described as a German and a fugitive Dutchman. Little more is known of the origin of this man than that he was of the same name as his father, Jan Bloem, who was a German by birth, and who with his son lived successively in four parts of the Colony.

This son, Jan, left or fled from the Colony with Piet Pienaar, who was afterwards murdered by the Africaanders. His avowed object in leaving the Colony was to tend some cattle belonging to Piet Pienaar on the Great river. Some time after removing thither, hearing of the multitude of cattle possessed by the Bachoana and the Koranas, and the defenceless state of these people, he resolved to make an attack upon them in order to carry off their herds, and so become rich in a single expedition.

By some means or other he prevailed on many Hottentots to accompany him on this plundering expedition. He and his people killed many of the inhabitants against whom they went, and captured a great number of their cattle ; indeed the number was so great that a thousand are said to have fallen to the share of Pienaar, which no doubt was the largest. When Pienaar transported his ill-gotten property to the Colony, Jan Bloem remained behind and continued to make plundering expeditions against the Koranas.

His first attempt was attended with a shocking event, for besides those who fell by means of his firearms, which greatly terrified the Koranas, many of the defenceless women and children ran for refuge from their murderers into the Great river, where they perished. After crossing the river, the first place where he formed his kraal was near the strong spring or fountain which now supplies the town of Bloemfontein with water, and hence its name, which it retained after he had abandoned that part of the country.

He afterwards went higher up the 'Gij 'Gariep, and took up his residence near the mouth of the Kolong river. There he commenced his ravages by attacking the Bachoana, many of whom were slain, and much cattle taken. He found means to prevail upon many Bushmen and Koranas to join his standard, which they did probably to save their own lives.

He received much assistance from Jacob and Karl Kruger, two Boers who fled from the Colony for some crime of which they had been guilty. These supplied him with additional muskets, ammunition, and people, and shared in the plunder which he obtained. He then established himself at another fountain, which subsequently had the name of Jan Bloem's fontein bestowed upon it, situated between Ongeluk Fontein — the Fountain of Misfortune — and T'Goay'pa, afterwards called Blink-klip, the shining rock or stone. This place he made for a long time his headquarters.

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He was then elected by a clan of the Taaibosches called the Springboks, their chief, or captain, and from among them he took the greater number of his wives, by whom he had seven sons besides daughters. He continued carrying on his cattle raids to a considerable distance into the interior, living on the plunder of every kraal he could surprise. He died from the effects of poison shortly after his repulse by the Bangwaketse, and was buried at Taung, about 1799, when his son, Jan Bloem the younger, succeeded to the chieftainship of the Springboks.

It was this man who led the Koranas in one or two of the most furious attacks which they made on Lithako. Under his command, and with the firearms he had acquired, they obtained victory after victory, plundering all the tribes within their reach, and spreading dismay through a wide extent of country.

At length he determined to attack the Bangwaketse, a tribe of Bachoana which their fellow-countrymen had learnt to look upon as invincible, and whose warlike chief, Makaba, had spread his fame throughout all the surrounding nations. The Koranas and Bloem were warned of the hazards they would run, but nothing daunted, the expedition started with the full assurance of an easy victory and an abundance of spoil ; but in this they were disappointed. They met with nothing but discomfiture and defeat, and here it was that a check was put to the iniquitous career of their reckless leader.

The Bangwaketse made a timely discovery of the danger which threatened them, and the energetic Makaba proved himself a warrior worthy of their steel. Both he and his people manifested considerable military skill and courage in the resistance they made against the attacks of Bloem.

They raised high walls across the passes between the mountains, leaving small openings in them like gates, which could easily be closed at the approach of an enemy. Many lay in ambush, while others were stationed on the tops of the mountains, and rolled down great stones upon their assailants. So effectual was the resistance which they made that he did not capture a single beast from the Bangwaketse, though he took thousands from the Batlapin and others.

The chief of the Springboks died shortly after this repulse, in consequence, it is said, of drinking from a fountain, the water of which was supposed to have been poisoned by the Bangwaketse ; and when dying he declared his belief in this being the cause of his death.

He could neither read nor write, and not- withstanding the many atrocities which he committed, and the scenes of rapine and bloodshed in which he seemed to take such delight, he presented one of those strange contradictions of character sometimes met with, by pretending to have considerable respect for religion, and by an occasional indulgence in devotional exercises.

In this disastrous expedition the Koranas lost many of their people, among whom was 'Kuri'ke, the father of 'Hanube, chief of the clan residing at 'Tshopo. 'Hanube was about twenty years old at the time of his father's death. This lesson appears to have been sufficient for them, and there is no record of any second attempt being made on the herds of the Bangwaketse by the Koranas for a long series of years.

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Molehabangwe, the great chief of the Batlapin, informed Messrs. Truter and Somerville that a few years before their visit, in 1801, he and his people had been attacked by Bloem and his party, armed with muskets, that their habitations had been burnt and destroyed, and most of their women and children cruelly murdered, some sacrificed in the flames, and the greater part of their cattle captured.

They were compelled to succumb, though those who attacked them were fewer in number, owing to the inferiority of their arms. Muntch, the son of Intshe, the Ostrich, was engaged in this combat, and was nearly surrounded. He fled, and was closely pursued by the Koranas, but although their arrows flew thickly round him he managed to escape. He also, like his father, sought refuge among the Bushmen for a short time.

During this period another outlying branch of the Batlapin was attacked and despoiled by some of the Korana clans. The Mutsheng, at that time, occupied a tract of country near the Langeberg, three days' journey to the south-west of Lithako. They possessed a considerable number of cattle until they were attacked by the Koranas on this occasion, who deprived them at one stroke of all their means of subsistence, and obliged them to live on roots, wild berries, gum, locusts, white ants, and other insects.

They occasionally caught a koodoo, but the toil was great, the chase before they could capture it sometimes occupying two or three days. Sitlori, who gave this information, was twelve years old when Kok, the old Griqua captain, first came in their neighbourhood. He then lived far down the Great river, and had come up to the Langeberg on a hunting expedition. He visited Sitlori's father's hut, and noticing their great poverty, invited some of the members of the family to go with him to assist in herding his sheep, a fact which would seem to indicate that Kok's retainers at the time could not have been very numerous.

It is authoritatively asserted that since the early days of the Korana occupation of the portion of the country we are now speaking of, a great alteration has taken place in its water supply. Then, the Kuruman is declared to have been a great river, which sometimes rose and continued high so long that women who happened to be on the other side at the time of its rise frequently lost all hope of being able to recross it, and in their despair married other men. It is also asserted that great quantities of reeds grew in it. Much water is said to have come down from the Malopo, which formed a junction near the Korana village, as well as down another river called Misari. The Koranas stated that the Batlaru dried up the rivers by witchcraft.

The Korana clans which penetrated farthest to the north were portions of the Taaibosches and the Scorpions. So successful had they been in their forays that they were obliged, in 1820, to separate themselves into three divisions, the most numerous of these residing at Mobati with their chief. This place and Malapitze were their two great centres in those days, while minor clans were spread all over the country through which they had passed. The restless members of the tribe gathered along this frontier, and strengthened the clans which had taken up their position there.

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It was here that they could indulge in their national proclivities for raiding and feasting with least risk to themselves and the almost certainty of success. They were at this period at the height of their fame ; the Griqua power and territorial assumptions had scarcely germed, much less developed sufficiently to overshadow, as it subsequently did, many of their clans. But it was not this growth of Griqua power alone which contributed to and hastened their decadence. Virulent disease shortly afterwards decimated them, and committed greater havoc in their villages than either the muskets or assagais of their enemies.

In 1820 parties of Koranas had established themselves along the eastern border of the Kalahari, as far north as a place called Mutshuana, on the Kuruman river. The people of this place were under one of their own captains, called Hanno 'Kano, “no cattle.” A second kraal, a short distance from the above, was under another captain, called 'Tky, possessing also the sobriquet of Moriakotu, or Korana medicine. The people under these captains were once as numerous as the Batlapin themselves, but the measles came among them and proved so fatal that they were reduced to a very small number.

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Thirty-four men, who were nearly all the males that survived this terrible visitation, went against the Batlou, Tamahas, and Tonnans, by invitation of the Batlapin, between 1806 and 1808. The Batlaru or Lahize's people joined also in the expedition with the Batlapin. When the battle was at its height, the Batlapin and Batlaru fled, leaving the Koranas nearly surrounded by the enemy. Thirty of them were cut off, and only four escaped. One of the latter managed to do so before his party was completely surrounded, the others remained together, defending themselves to the last.

There was also in these parts another considerable kraal at 'Tshopo, to which allusion has already been made. Besides these, kraals were spread along the Vaal river between the Maquassies' spruit and the embouchure of the Kolong, as well as between the latter and the junction of the 'Gij 'Gariep with the Great river. At Modderfontein, kraals of Koranas and Bushmen were living in apparent friendship, although in close proximity to one another ; the name of the captain of the former was Ilapaim and of the latter 'Caricoup.

Near the banks of the river another Korana horde was met with, near a spot named t'Jokohama, under a captain called Slaparm, who in 1801 offered himself as a guide to Mr. Borcherds' party as far as Jonker's-fontein. Between this last place and the Karee mountains these travellers met no more Koranas, but several hordes of Bushmen, some of whom, as their sugar was consumed, supplied them with beautiful honey. The travellers thus gained their confidence and some of them followed the waggons, a fact which showed that even at that time, when they were most maligned, a fair reward would secure the willing services of these wild huntsmen.

The foregoing shows that by 1801 the clans of the Middle Veld had entirely evacuated their old camping grounds, and were now spread over an immense extent of country, from the t'Keys drift, where several hordes and kraals of Koranas were found, to the eastern border of the Kalahari, north of the Kuruman river.

As the race thus extended, the subdivision of their clans continued to increase, but in the present day the names of many of them appear to be lost, and the following is the most extensive list which could be obtained from reliable sources. Some of the old Korana authorities assert that the ancient name of the Great Koranas was a word signifying the Toovenaars, or the Wizards or Sorcerers, and that all the other clans or offshoots sprang from them ; that afterwards the eldest branch of these Toovenaars or Great Koranas, or rather that of the paramount chief, obtained the name of the Taaibosches or 'Gou'naap's Koranas, from the sobriquet of one of their great chiefs, although they still remained and considered themselves Toovenaars.

The next in rank to them came the Links stem, those of the left stem, or those standing to the left. These people had also a chief named Links ; the name therefore might mean those of the stem of Links. If asked, however, to what part of the Korana tribe he belongs, a Links Korana will always call himself a Toovenaar, proving that he does not consider his branch as completely severed from the parent stock.

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The same may be said of the next great branch, called the 'Gaap and 'Twua-'kne or Katse people. This last title is said to have been given on account of these people having pursued a hartebeest across a ford called the Kat ford on the 'Taba-'Taepoep, or Kat river.

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The next powerful branch of the old stock was the Springboks, so called on account of their being numerous like that animal.

5. The Scorpions. The reason for this name and those which follow has not been given.

6. The 'Kow-'kais, 'Kow-'cu'ga, or the Zeekoes, i.e. the Hippopotami.

7. The Zee-koes dragers, the Bearers of Sea-cows or Hippopotami.

8. The Regt-Staanders, those who stand for the right. These people have obtained the name of the Goliaths, from one of their chiefs.

9. The Oo-'kena or Scar-june.

10. The Gomtena.

All these appear to be the nearest branches of the main stem, those which follow are probably more distant, as the connecting link has not been preserved.

11. The Hooge-Staanders, those who stand high.

12. The Papieren, i.e. the Papers.

13. The 'Cabus'que, the Stabbers.

14. The Kaross Dragers, the Carriers or Wearers of Karosses.

15. The Naauwe Wangen, the Narrow-cheeks.

16. The Boek brieven, the Book-letters.

17. The Snyers, the Cutters, or Tailors.

18. The Hoogten, the Heights.

19. The Koker-boomen, the Quiver-trees, from the species of aloe from which the Bushmen make their quivers.

20. The Spinnekop Zoekers, the Searchers for Spiders.

21. The 'Kannis-geis, and

22. The Ratten, or the Rats.

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In the titles of the foregoing clans we at once perceive that the contact of the Koranas with Dutch speaking people is clearly made manifest, but in 1812-13 personal names, or those of individuals, still remained of pure Kora origin, as the following examples will show.

'Ka-een-de-hare, meaning lively sunshine.
'Koo-'rhe, meaning a white stone.
Moo-'que, meaning to see a thing right.
'Che-be-a, meaning ?
'Keis-se-'cha, meaning foremost.
'Te-oon-havel, meaning an unsuccessful hunt.
Moo-'kha, meaning sharp sight.

From the above we find the effect which their intercourse with Dutch-speaking Bastaards, alias Griquas, and such colonial outlaws as took refuge among their clans, had upon their tribal nomenclature, while with regard to the names of the great mass of the people it had exercised little or no influence at all. This is interesting, as it so well illustrates how such additions and variations in names become a powerful evidence and proof of contact between races speaking different languages, and thus frequently afford means of unravelling the true history of a nation, even in times far removed from the present. The Griquas will be found to afford another instance of the case in point, but as their connection was of a closer character, and of long duration, the impress of the Dutch influence is more marked and decided.

In the same manner, should we meet a Kaffir priding himself in the name of Klaas, Piet, or Jantje, we should imagine that either he or his friends who gave him the cognomen had been in the service of the Dutch ; whereas if he were known as Tom, Dick, John, or Jim, we should say that he must have been at one time under an influence decidedly English. This is a fact which it will be well to bear in mind when treating of some of the other South African races.

THE TAAIBOSCH FAMILY.
Frequent intermarriages took place between the Koranas and Batlapin during the period of the ascendancy of the former, not only among the commoner people, but some even of the Batlapin chiefs selected their wives from among the daughters of the Korana captains. These intimate relations gave rise to the introduction of a number of words of mixed origin into the vocabularies of both people, which was the more noticeable in proper names, whether of individuals or of localities.

This partial blending among the border clans may have been encouraged by the less formidable and victimised Bachoana from motives of policy, while on the side of the Korana any efforts at conciliation were deemed almost supererogatory. It was however during this period of Korana exaltation that the race of their paramount chiefs, both from their matrimonial alliances and the extent of their conquests, rose to the highest pinnacle of their greatness, and that the influence of their people, the Toovenaars and their branches, extended over a greater expanse of country than at any other time.

From the accompanying genealogy it will be seen that it can scarcely be doubted but that these Taaibosches were in reality the lineal descendants and representatives of their ancient chief Kora. Their early history at the Cape has already been detailed. Their career in the Middle Veld is lost in oblivion, but was doubtless filled up with internecine feuds and petty cattle raids upon their neighbours' kraals, such as have been described ; and it was only after their passage of the 'Gariep that they once more emerged from the obscurity in which they had been enveloped for several generations.

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After the treacherous attack of the Barolong chief upon them, and their rapid and victorious advance into the Bachoana country, they appear to have fixed their headquarters on the Ma'kaab river, at a place called Malapeetze or Malapitze (the Quagga's placenta) by the Batlapin, and Ma-kholoyank or Taaibosch's kraal by the Koranas. It appears to have been from this centre that the tribe threw off, from time to time, so many offshoots, which the increase of population or the development of rival assumptions rendered imperative and inevitable. It was from this point also that all their great expeditions against the peace and property of the interior tribes emanated.

By 1812-13 the number of inhabitants at the great kraal of the Taaibosches, owing to subdivisions of the tribe and the fatal visitations of measles before alluded to, had commenced declining considerably. The kraal was then composed of some fifty-six huts, and contained about three hundred inhabitants. They, however, possessed two thousand cows at this, and as many more at two outstations. They were then living, like their forefathers, almost entirely on their cattle, more especially on their milk ; so that such a state of affairs, although they were then small in numbers, was to them a Korana paradise, they having little else to do than to milk their cows.

Many of them at this time had become possessed of firearms and horses, which, notwithstanding their diminished numbers in men, rendered some of their clans even more dangerous and formidable than they were before to their Bachoana and Basutu neighbours. Their old national indolence stuck to them, and even at this date they obtained their assagais and skin karosses from the Batlapin.

These Koranas were formerly under the government of two brothers, who, not agreeing, separated, one removing and taking possession of the old Barolong station at Taung. Here, forgetting the lessons of the past, one of the sons of old Taaibosch determined, although strongly advised against so hazardous an attempt, to make another raid against the Bangwaketse ; but, upon reaching their destination, he and his party fell into an ambuscade and were slain to a man.

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With disaster and repulse the bitterness of their mutual feuds increased. At a later period the advance of the formidable Mantatee horde spread terror amongst them and scattered many of the smaller clans ; others took to flight until the storm was over, and then returned to their former camping-grounds. Among these were such petty captains as 'Chu'deep and Ban'tze, 'Chuboo and 'Keideboo'kei, living on the banks of the Vaal or'Gij-'Gariep a little below the junction of Maquassie's Spruit.

Notwithstanding their discomfiture and their subsequent troubles, upon the advance of the Matabili into the old country of the Bakuena between the Magaliesberg and the Limpopo, the enormous herds of cattle in their possession proved too great a temptation to the acquisitiveness of these restless marauders ; they therefore made one or two daring attempts to seize some of the much coveted booty at the most exposed outstations of the Great Elephant, as Moselekatze delighted to be called.

On a few occasions they were successful, but on two or three others they were suddenly overtaken in their retreat, their bivouac, when they were most confident of success, was surprised and stormed in the dead of night, and the ruthless Matabili assagais weltered in Korana blood until scarcely one escaped to tell the terrible tale.

Taung was then occupied by the Great Koranas under their chief Jan Taaibosch, afterwards generally called Jan Kaptein. He was still a great chief, and his people lived in the country to the left of the Malalarene or Kolong. It was with his permission that several large kraals of Batlapin belonging to Mothibi settled in portions of the same country. Some ten or twelve miles lower down the Barolong, after abandoning Maquassie, had located themselves in the neighbourhood of Great Platberg.

Lower down the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal there were many petty Korana chiefs of the clans called the Ratten, Zeekoes, Scorpions, and also the Springboks, of which last Jan Bloem the younger was captain. The Bushman chief 'Kousop, and afterwards his son Scheel Kobus, lived on the southern side of the Vaal river, while their acknowledged territories extended far to the right of the Riet and Modder rivers in the south.

Such then was the position of the various tribes who were the immediate neighbours of the great clan of the Taaibosches, when a complication of circumstances, such as a long series of severe droughts, the increasing turbulence of the country, the threatened attacks of the Matabili on the one hand and the Bergenaars on the other, tended to accelerate a general migration towards the more mountainous parts of the country in the east, although some vague expressions were beginning to be used, styling it Moshesh's country.

Few Basutus were living in it, principally in consequence of the devastating wars occasioned by Moselekatze, Sikoniela, the Amazulu, and others. In the midst of this, not only Moroko with his Barolong left the Platberg, accompanied by his missionary, the Rev. Mr.Archbell, and stationed themselves at Thaba Nchu, but even the Korana chief Jan Taaibosch migrated in the same direction.

This, however, was not so much in consequence of the causes above mentioned, as from the continuous feuds which were ever raging, except when some common danger threatened the entire tribe, among the rival clans of which it was composed. On this occasion a quarrel had arisen between the paramount chief and the Goliaths, or as they boastfully styled themselves the Hooge- Staanders, or those who stood high, under the captain Goliath Ysterbek, his cousin.

The rivalry was at length carried to such extremes that a civil war broke out between them, when in a battle which ensued the paramount chief Jan Taaibosch was defeated, and his clansmen were put to flight. In his retreat he evacuated Taung with the greater part of his followers, and moved with them in the direction of the present Koranaberg, settling first at Umpukani, afterwards at Merumetsu, leaving the captain Rijt Taaibosch behind him to look after that portion of the clan that did not remove. It was after this that Rijt Taaibosch assumed the title of Korana chief of Mamusa.

Moshesh, in those days, was only too satisfied to see other tribes, even under their own chiefs and government, flocking into the country and forming a kind of cordon around the thinly populated and circumscribed tract which could then with any show of reality be styled the territories of the chief of the mountain ; and as he well knew that they would form an outer shield against the depredations of the Bergenaars on the one side and the more dreaded attacks of the Matabili on the other, they were welcome to fix themselves in any position of comparative danger they chose to occupy.

If we refer for a moment to the foregoing account of the migrations of these Koranas to the northward, we shall observe that after the first few years of their intrusion, no further notice is taken of the Bushmen : they had either become absorbed by some of the invading clans, or had been nearly annihilated by others. The attention of these northern Koranas had been more immediately bestowed upon the acquisition of cattle, and of course upon those races possessing them. We shall find, however, that along the eastern line of migration the case was different, and that the work of extermination was being carried on with cruel and stem activity.

Even among those whose movements we have now been discussing, there were three different modes of treatment which the Bushmen received at their hands. Thus the one, such as the Katse people, fraternised and intermarried with them after their first wars had ended ; others again, such as the t'Keys, although living distinct, still kept up a kind of friendly alliance with them ; but, by far the greater portion, especially among the richer clans, there was a deep-rooted and never-dying animosity evinced against them.

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Leonard Jagers was a fit representative of one of this class, and with his evidence we will close this section of our subject. From it, however, we shall see that the old hunter race was still unconquered, and that although the war of races had become intensified and hereditary, as is but too clearly shown by the tone of bitterness which runs through Jagers' descriptions, still true to the traditions of their nation, the descendants of the ancient cave dwellers remained resolute and undaunted to the last.

Harassed and driven from one part of their ancient hunting-grounds to another, they seemed as if, finding that they could not drive the intruders back again, a wild and uncontrollable spirit of revenge was taking possession of them, while the greater portion of their enemies appeared to have formed the determination to extirpate them from the face of the earth.

When I was a boy, said the old Toovenaar, I was herding the cattle of the Goliaths, and whilst in the veld the Bushmen of the mountains gathered themselves together. They were the men who fought with the short bow and little arrows, and not like the Bushmen of the Langeberg, who carried a long bow for hunting or for war.

The Koranas do not always go out with their cattle, but drive them to the field in the morning, and at noon send their youths to look after them. At this time when they sent, the cattle could not be found, more than half had been seized and carried off by the Bushmen. This was from the banks of the 'Gumaap,N or Great Riet river, a confluent of the 'Gij 'Gariep ; thence the Bushmen drove them off to the mountains, where a spitzkop rose above the others. On the top of this high mountain the Bushmen drove the cattle.

Here they commenced slaughtering, and feasting on the carcasses. And when the cattle were missed the people (Koranas) took up the spoor, and following it got upon the trail of the Bushmen, and traced them to the mountain. Then the Koranas got together their fighting men. In those days the Koranas had guns, and some had horses, and they got together horsemen and footmen and went towards the mountain.

Notes: Leonard Jagers stated that the Koranas and others call this river, below the junction of the Modder and Riet, the 'Gumaap, or Great Reed river, 'Gumaap signifying Reed or Reeds. The name is far more appropriate than that put down in English maps, viz. the Modder or Mud, as there is not a single bank of mud to be found between the junction and its mouth.

In the night they saw the fires of the Bushmen, and heard the noise of the feasting. Those that had horses left them at the foot of the mountain, and in the stillness of the night they climbed up the sides and concealed themselves in the rocks around the edge of the flat top until the day began to dawn. Then the Bushmen were aroused by the Koranas firing upon them. There was a large camp of the Bushmen, and they had lived upon the top of the mountain for a long time with their wives and their children, and it was a great town.

When the firing began, the Bushmen arose and tried to drive the Koranas back, and they fought and fought, but it did not help them. And when they would have fled, they found they were surrounded, and there were slain that day a great number, and few escaped. The women and children were killed together, and but few men escaped. The Koranas found that all their cattle were stabbed and shot to death, and none remained for them to recover. On that day no Korana was injured or slain, but the Bushmen fell in great numbers.

After this there were two other wars ; and the Bushmen caught two young Koranas in the field and murdered them. When it was discovered, the Koranas followed after them, and overtook and surrounded them. On that day a Korana was slain ; he was a man of great size, and a Bushman ran and shot him in his side, and he fell dead, for the poison was so strong that he remained on the spot. After this there was yet another war. The Bushmen seized the cattle and the Koranas followed after them ; and again another Korana was shot. The arrow struck him on the cheek, and he died there from the poison upon the arrow as soon as he was shot.

In those days the land was full of quaggas, and the Koranas when they saw them were alarmed and hastened to the plains, for they knew that the Bushmen must be amongst them ; and they hunted the Bushmen and destroyed them when they came upon them, for they were a wild and perverse race that could not be tamed.

The Bushmen used disguises, and sometimes they appeared as wild bucks and sometimes as birds ; they fastened the heads of bucks upon their shoulders, and covered themselves with the skins of the ostrich. They walked as if the ostrich were walking, and they carried their bows and arrows ready with them. When the Koranas went out into the field, if they were alone, the Bushmen would waylay them. And if a Korana did not return home in the evening they knew that the Bushmen had killed him and that they would find him dead in the morning.

Three Koranas, armed with guns, rode out into the plains to look for the horses of the kraal, and when they had found them, one turned to drive them back to the kraal and the other two continued in the plain to hunt quaggas. A Bushman who was concealed, seeing that one Korana was returning alone with the horses, hastened to hide himself in the path. The Korana that was with them, when he saw the horses were turned out of the path and that a Bushman was before him, was seized with a deadly fear, and when he saw the Bushman he turned his horse and fled as hard as he could ride, with the gun in his hand.

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When the Bushman saw that the Korana had turned and fled, he quickly caught a grey riding horse that was a swift runner, and mounted upon him and pursued the Korana ; and they both rode as hard as they could, and the Bushman overtook the Korana, for the grey riding horse was the swiftest one of the kraal. The Bushman seized hold of the gun of the Korana, and they rode and struggled together, and the Bushman wrenched the gun from the hand of the Korana, and such was the fear of the Korana that he forgot to put his finger on the trigger of his gun to shoot the Bushman.

When the Korana found that the Bushman had taken his gun from him, he threw himself from his horse and ran towards the mountain, hoping to hide himself among the rocks away from the Bushman ; but the Bushman threw himself also from his horse. The Korana dodged round a bush to escape the Bushman, and the Korana was on one side of the bush and the Bushman on the other. He shot the Korana with his own gun, and the ball went through his head. When the Korana's two friends returned from following the quaggas they found him dead, and the Bushman had escaped with the gun.

But a short time after, the Bushman, rendered presumptuous and daring by the possession of the gun, went to steal the horses of a BoerN by night, and the great dogs of the Boer attacked him and tore him to pieces, and in the morning his body was found torn to pieces and the gun by the side of it.

Notes: This is the first mention made by a native of the intrusion of Boer squatters into the old hunting grounds of the Bushmen north of the 'Nu-'Gariep or Orange river.

In those days the Bushmen were very vicious, and the Koranas had to hunt them down as they would any other wild animal, that there might be some quiet in the land. They were like wild animals which nothing could tame. Thus it was, continued Jagers, when I was a young man, and I but just escaped from the hands of a Bushman myself.

One of the horses having strayed, I went in search of it, and saw it near the side of a neighbouring hill. When I was getting near it, I saw the head of a Bushman rise suddenly above the long grass, right in the path I had to go. It was but for a moment that I caught sight of him, and I at once saw that he was one of the small kind that wore their arrows sticking out from a fillet round their heads, and who are all wild and untamable.

I knew at once that he intended to waylay me as I approached the horse, and would shoot me as soon as I got nearer ; and also that if I allowed him to think I had caught sight of him I should have no chance of escape, for they are swift runners. They run like a horse, and in broken rocky ground no horse has a chance of overtaking them. They bound along, and when once among the rocks are like the klipspringers or baboons ; they spring from rock to rock without fear of falling. Therefore to turn and run away at once I knew would never do, as he would certainly overtake me.

I therefore went on a few paces before I hesitated ; I then stopped, and felt my pouch, and then looked on the ground as if I had dropped something, then went a short distance back and looked about on the ground as if I were still searching for something I had lost. Then I went a few steps towards the Bushman again, then I retreated again on the road a little farther than before. I continued this a number of times, each time getting farther away.

This I did, so that I should not alarm the Bushman with the idea that I had seen him and wished to escape from him, but that he might think that I had merely lost something and was looking for it, and when I had found it I should again return by the same path for the horse ; thus he would lie quiet in the same place, and not follow me.

When I thought that by these means I had got far enough from him to have a good start, I stooped down and fastened the veldschoens tightly on my feet, and tightened my girdle firmly round my waist. I was then young, and could run as fast as any young man of my tribe, but I knew that when I once started I should have to run for my life, for a Bushman who wore arrows round his head would not spare me if I were overtaken.

When I rose up I sprang forward at once, and ran with all my might in the direction of the Korana camp. The Bushman, as soon as he saw that I fled, sprang up and came down after me like the wind, and I ran as fast as I could get my feet to the ground, and exerted all my strength, but I found that the Bushman was gaining upon me and that it would be hard for me to escape.

The Bushman still pressed me and gained upon me, and I felt that he intended to come close before he shot at me, to make sure that his arrow would strike me and there should be no fear of missing his aim. I began to feel faint, but still I ran, for I knew that my life depended upon my swiftness ; and the Bushman was still gaining upon me, and getting nearer and nearer, but still I ran.

Just as I felt hope was getting less, the men of the camp, who were on the look-out, saw me, and saw that the Bushman was following closely after me, and they rushed forward with their guns in their hands to meet me as I came on. They shouted, and ran towards me, and the women and children when they heard the alarm came streaming out of the camp, crying out and shrieking as they ran towards me. But the Bushman still pressed me closely, evidently determined to overtake me and kill me before they could help me.

But when I saw my friends, I sprang forward towards them with all the strength I had; but he followed me, and it was not until they were close to me that he left off pursuing me. Then he turned and fled, and soon left the Koranas that followed far behind, for they had no horses near at hand, and he ran faster than a horse, and thus, he escaped.

After that, continued the Toovenaar, they hunted the Bushmen and shot them that there might be peace in the land, for the wild beasts and the Bushmen were alike, they could not be tamed. And the Koranas cleared the land, and then there was quiet.

Here we have a vivid and graphic picture of the treatment a large portion of the Bushmen received at the hands of the northern Koranas after their intrusion into the Bushman territories of the Vaal. The evidence of this one man would have been the evidence of hundreds had it been obtainable. The quiet he speaks of was the quiet of annihilation. It was the peace of death !

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The Migrations of the Koranas to the Eastward, in the basins of the Orange and Caledon rivers.

When the Korana hordes first crossed the 'Gariep and 'Nu-'Gariep, almost all their migrations were in a northerly direction, especially along the valley of the 'Gij 'Gariep to the mouth of the Kolong, thence along the valley of the latter river to its sources and that portion of it called the Malalarene.

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Up to a comparatively recent period they appear never to have made an effort to penetrate to any distance eastward of this line, and even as late as 1820 Mr. Campbell assures us that no Koranas lived higher up the 'Nu 'Gariep than 'Kon'nah, and there were none on the banks of the 'Gij 'Gariep higher than about four days' journey above its junction with the Kolong ; while to the northward they extended as far as Mo-ba-ti. In a westerly direction they were not found far beyond the falls of the Great river, near the point where some of the early Korana clans first struck it, or about halfway between the junction of the 'Gij and 'Nu 'Gariep and Namaqualand. As a rule the Koranas were not desirous of leaving the banks of the Great river.

We shall find, however, that they made exceptions, not only, as we have seen, in their expeditions and their settlements to the north ; but at a subsequent period also, after the great wars of Matiwane and the Matabili, when so many branches of the Basutu tribes had been broken up and dispersed, or had fled for refuge towards the mountainous district along the great Maluti range in the east.

It was shortly after this time that the Koranas commenced to extend their marauding inroads in that direction. The expeditions and ravages of the savage banditti, called the Bergenaars, whose bands were joined by several of the Korana clans, especially by a considerable number of the Katse people and the Zeekoes, doubtless gave an impetus to this movement, which continued until they had not only established themselves at Makwatling, the present Koranaberg, but even attempted on several occasions to seize the cattle of the Bakuena, who then held the noted stronghold of Thaba Bosigo, under Moshesh.

Much of this portion of their history is so involved with that of other tribes with which they came in contact, such as the Griquas, the Leghoya, and Basutu, that, in order to avoid useless repetition, we shall defer detailing such exploits until treating of the several tribes connected therewith.

With regard, however, to the earliest of these eastern expeditions, we are told that in 1820 there was perhaps no part of Southern Africa less known than that situated between the junction of the Riet and Modder rivers and the high ridges of the Drakensberg towards the Indian ocean.

Any information therefore throwing light upon such darkness as this little explored region presented at that time, must needs be interesting. That the entire country had been occupied by Bushman tribes from time immemorial cannot be doubted, the evidence upon this point is too strong to admit of refutation. It seems equally certain that in the year just mentioned (1820) the Koranas had pushed so far to the eastward that they had formed a settlement on the banks of the Gum-Gariep, now called Vet river, which runs into the 'Gij-'Gariep, or Likwa, as one portion of it was called by the early emigrant Basutu.

Here the Links stam had their kraals, and they were then the farthest to the eastward of any of their race. The largest kraal was under a chief named 'Harina. It contained seven or eight hundred Koranas and a great number of Bushmen who could speak the Korana language. Mr. Campbell, who visited them, states that Korana men frequently married Bushwomen, but 'Harina assured him that he could not remember a single instance of a Korana woman marrying a Bushman.

The Bushmen occupying this river valley were said to be more civilised than that part of the nation which inhabited the more western parts of Africa, for at this time they possessed an abundance of cattle and were inclined to live at peace with their neighbours. This improvement in their condition we shall discover as we proceed was mainly, if not entirely, attributable to the friendly intercourse that had existed for a considerable time between themselves and the Leghoya, the only tribe which ever intruded itself into Bushman territory that from the very commencement of their intercourse attempted to establish just and friendly relations between themselves and the aborigines.

The wisdom of the experiment was proved, for they not only gained the goodwill of the Bushmen by such treatment, but also good neighbours who under their friendly influence became more civilised and adopted a more improved state of existence than any of their race had previously attained. The Leghoya themselves then lived near the junction of the Vet river with the Vaal, and spread thence about two days' journey farther to the eastward.

The Links Koranas had no intercourse with any tribes as far north as the Tamahas, but they exchanged skins with the Bachoana and Leghoya for Kaffir corn and tobacco.

From their accounts, up to a very short time before 1820, the greater part, if not the entire country between the Leghoya settlements and the ridge of the great mountain barrier of the Drakensberg was “unoccupied,” that is, it must still have been in the possession of its original owners, the Bushmen, and not in that of the stronger and intruding races.

Shortly after this period, urged probably by the growing dread of the Mantatee hordes to the north of the Vaal, a number of other Korana clans pressed into this portion of the country, and the very first victims of their restless lawlessness were these more advanced Bushmen. Different writers have put upon record the atrocities which were committed upon them, nor did their oppressors cease from harrying them until entire kraals were annihilated and the survivors were deprived of the last hoof of cattle which belonged to them, and which under the more just and generous mode of treatment they had experienced at the hands of the friendly Leghoya, they had learnt to accumulate.

The following instances will sufficiently explain the remorseless conduct to which they were subjected by these grasping intruders. In August 1825 some Koranas living upon the 'Nu 'Gariep, about twenty miles from Ramah, made attacks upon two Bushmen kraals, one situated about eighteen miles from them, between their own place and Paardeberg, the other near the deserted mission station of Hephzibah, between Tooverberg and the 'Nu 'Gariep.

At the first the marauders killed several men and captured twenty-three head of cattle, thirteen goats, five sheep, and eighteen children. At Hephzibah the same band of plunderers killed many of the people and took away one child and all their small flocks of cattle, sheep, and goats. The Bushmen of these kraals were the remains of the people who had once lived at the mission station of Hephzibah. Mr. Sass states that when he first commenced his mission in 1814, at the suggestion of the Rev. A. Faure, at Philippolis, the Koranas had been engaged from time immemorial in the most rancorous hostilities with the Bushmen, and it was a long time before they could be persuaded to look at a Bushman without attempting to murder him, so deep was the inveterate hatred between the two races.

In 1825 'Krieger, chief of a large Korana kraal, with his people attacked two Bushman kraals in the neighbourhood of the 'Koma, about halfway between Philippolis and the 'Gij 'Gariep, when they committed a number of cruel murders and robberies, killing and driving away the men, and seizing the women and children who survived the attack as prisoners.

As their numbers increased, so these Koranas extended the field of their ravages. As the vultures, high circling in the air, detect carrion from afar, and come flocking from all quarters to their horrid banquet, so it was with these inveterate marauders, whom Dr. Casalis not inaptly styled "the Bedouins of South Africa." They rapidly gathered along the borders whenever the irresistible temptation of plunder was made known to them. The loot seized from the unhappy Bushmen was soon insufficient to satisfy their desire for cattle ; the sleek and numerous herds of the pacific Leghoya presented too strong an allurement for them to withstand.

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A series of cruel depredations was commenced upon them, which soon extended also to the herds of the emigrant Basutu. They even launched into a number of expeditions into territories remote from themselves ; thus we are informed by J. Montgomery, an authority in matters of native history, that two of their noted captains, 'Karapan and Witte Voet, started upon what they termed a hunting expedition ; and having reached the borders of the Matabili country, and wishing to make their trip a paying one, captured, near one of Moselekatze's outstations, a large herd of cattle belonging to him, and beat a retreat with as great rapidity as possible. Moselekatze in hot haste sent a large commando in pursuit, with orders to overtake the marauders at all hazards and recover the cattle which had been seized.

The Koranas, expecting the avengers would be upon their trail, continued their flight, and overtook, on the way, a party of poor Basutu migrating from the north to join Moshesh, who had established himself among the mountains of what is now British Basutoland. With these unfortunates, the cunning and treacherous Koranas, in order to deceive them and their pursuers, whom they supposed were now close upon their heels, left some of their plunder.

The Matabili, overtaking the unsuspecting Basutu, and finding a portion of the stolen cattle in their possession, butchered in cold blood some ten to twelve hundred of these wretched victims to the baseness of the Koranas, and returned in triumph with the recaptured cattle and the spoils of the annihilated tribe to the great place of their master.

In the opposite direction these cattle raids were extended as far as the kraals of some of the Abatembu, who were gradually pushing their way towards the Orange river, in which a number of these Kaffirs were killed and a considerable quantity of cattle captured.

From the time of their advancing towards the east, they were almost always at war with their neighbours. No tribe in their vicinity enjoyed a moment's repose, and after they were furnished with firearms and mounted on good horses, they pillaged all the tribes around them in succession, until their chiefs inspired their neighbours with such terror that they spoke of them as wolves. They even reduced some of the fragmentary Bachoana and Basutu tribes to a state of vassalage, obliging them to become herdsmen and servants.

In 1836 the most notorious and formidable of these marauding leaders were Piet Witte-Voet, Sarles, and Voortouw. It was during this period that the Koranas spread themselves over the widest extent of Bushman territory which they ever possessed. Their power as a tribe was then at its height ; the possession of guns for a time made them more daring, but as the Griquas on the one hand and the Basutu on the other increased in strength, their decline of fortune commenced, and it continued ever dwindling until they sank into the insignificant position they have attained in the present day.

As the influence of Moshesh began to extend and make itself felt by his weaker neighbours, the robber-chiefs of these untamable clans established their strongholds on the tops of precipitous and almost inaccessible mountains. Their headquarters were at that time on the rugged yet terraced sides of a magnificent mountain which forms a landmark in the scenery of the Conquered Territory, some eighteen or twenty miles from the old station of Beersheba, called Boteta, the Rolling Mountain, or the Elandsberg, whose rising rocks, step after step, were like the successive ramparts of an enormous, and what would in the hands of resolute men have been an impregnable, mountain fortress.

An industrious people would soon have converted the fertile valleys of this mountain into a beautiful place of residence, but the pillaging Koranas only saw in it a rock citadel, whence they could conveniently spy out and pounce upon their unsuspecting victims, and like the vultures which frequented it, they built their shelters on its loftiest ridges.

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This was the point from which they made so many of their excursions upon the Basutu and other surrounding tribes. They were said to be the only people inhabiting a large extent of country at the time the French mission at Beersheba was founded on the banks of the Caledon. The country was then stated to be uninhabited, that is, merely in the occupation of wild game and tribes of the Bushman race, whose sole means of subsistence was the chase.

Hence their presence was always ignored, although there is overwhelming evidence that the country was then, and for a long period afterwards, thickly populated by them. But in this case, as in every other, with the honourable exception of the Leghoya, the true aborigines of the country were never for a moment taken into consideration when an eligible spring or fountain was required by the intruders of the stronger races into their territories.

The founding of this mission marked the date of a terrible act of vengeance on the part of the Basutu, which convinced the Koranas that their reign was over and that their mountain stronghold could no longer be a secure retreat to shield them after their depredations.

An emigrant Xosa Kaffir, named Jalusa, had established himself on one of the outlying branches of the 'Koesberg, and shortly afterwards began to intercept travellers, lay violent hands upon them, and enrich himself with their booty. Complaints of these outrages were made to Moshesh, who was then beginning to assert his authority over a broad expanse of the surrounding country, and he determined in a summary manner to put an end to the outrages of the stranger. Suddenly, when they least expected it, the guilty horde was surrounded by some thousands of men, commanded by two of the sons of Moshesh, and was cut to pieces.

The smoke of the burning villages was seen from Beersheba. Some of the fugitives who escaped from the slaughter fled towards the mission station, where they were found by the missionary Rolland a prey to hunger and despair, and thus their lives were saved.

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The Koranas, surprised at the daring blow that had been just struck by Moshesh at so short a distance from their own abode, and seeing the assurance of the inhabitants of Beersheba, upon whom they had been accustomed to levy a species of blackmail, increase from day to day, quitted that portion of the country altogether.

We have already seen that after the domestic feuds of the Taaibosches, the main branch of the Toovenaars separated, and that the chief Jan Taaibosch and his retainers fell back towards Koranaberg, the Thaba Mekuatling of the Basutu ; first however pitching their huts at Umpukani, or as it was more commonly called Tlotlolane, near Thaba Cheu.

Tlotlolane was a hill of considerable magnitude, in the form of a tongue, the summit of the crest being towards the west and the inclination towards the east. In 1836, when M. Arbousset visited the locality, two European houses, belonging to the missionaries, were standing near the top of the hill, and to the right of them a kraal of about two hundred and fifty Korana huts, while some of the detached hills in the neighbourhood were inhabited by a few Bachoana.

Gert Taaibosch, son of Jan, gradually migrated towards the eastward, and occupied a piece of country between Sikoniela and Moshesh. These chiefs endeavoured to drive him out without success. It was after he had established himself in this territory that he encountered the Bataung chief Molitsane in a state of abject poverty. He was then upon a hunting expedition towards the Orange river, when the Korana captain engaged his services to look after his cattle in the country he had taken possession of, during the frequent absences which his own wandering predatory habits induced.

These Koranas, however, never rose again to any great power, and their descendants are now to be found scattered among the Bataung, the Basutu, and over portions of the Free State.

Some of the fragments of these Korana clans fraternised with the Bushmen, and became mixed up with their raids in the State. These were the Ratten, Scorpions, Zeekoes, and others, and were either killed or dispersed on the death of Scheel Kobus, the last Bushman captain of the Vaal. Others fled, and the survivors of the Springboks, the Scorpions, the Hooge Staanders, the Katse, and the Papieren now live low down the 'Gariep or Great river.

A myth current among the Koranas of the Links stam, and which Mr. Campbell was fortunate enough to obtain from their chief 'Hari'na in 1820, concerning the origin of their race, will serve as a fitting conclusion to this necessarily imperfect memoir concerning them. He stated that from what they had learnt from their forefathers they believed that there were at first only two men in the world, a Korana and a Bushman, that a woman came out of the ground whom the Korana married, and that from this connexion the country was peopled.

The Korana employed the Bushman to kill game. One day this Bushman came to a large cave where the Korana kept his calves, for there were no cattle kraals in those days, when he shot one of the calves with an arrow, and skinned it and brought it to the Korana as if it had been game.

On tasting the flesh, the Korana was surprised, and inquired where the other obtained it. The Bushman only replied that he had shot it. The next time the Bushman went to search for game, the Korana, suspecting all was not fair, followed him secretly, and saw him go to the cave and shoot another calf, and thus his roguery was detected.

The artifice of the Bushman led to a disagreement between them. A little before sunset one evening they agreed to a separation, and also a division of the cattle, which had been before considered their mutual property. The Korana inquired of the Bushman which of the cattle he would choose for his share, who replied those which had sparkling eyes, not reflecting that their lustre arose from the evening rays of the sun.

The Korana chose the dark-eyed cattle, but put off making a division until the sun went down. On examining the herd the Bushman could find none with shining eyes, and supposed they had strayed ; he therefore went in search of them. After an unsuccessful search he returned with his body severely scratched by thorns. In the meanwhile the Korana, having smeared his face and legs with butter, which he had obtained by accident from the milk, looked so well that the Bushman was ashamed to remain longer with him, and went away without the cattle to subsist entirely on game, leaving his share to the Korana.

Although this myth does not point out how the poor Bushman obtained a wife, it seems to indicate, if the myth be at all ancient, that the Hottentot race must have been in early times occupying territory where Bushmen alone were found from a period so remote that the ancestors of these Koranas believed that no other men existed on the earth except the Bushmen and themselves. This therefore would point to a period long prior to their having been driven southward by the fathers of the Bachoana tribes.

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THE GRIQUAS


We have now arrived at the last tribe connected with the Hottentot race which it will be necessary for us to notice ; but their history forms nevertheless a subject of considerable interest, from the notice into which both Griquas and Griqualand have of late years been brought by the wonderful discovery of diamonds in the valley of the Vaal, and the diverse land claims connected therewith.

We have already pointed out that among the old Hottentot tribes in the days of the early Dutch settlement there was a clan belonging to the Cochoqua group which was variously called Chariguriqua and Grigriqua. In 1652 they were said to be without any hereditary chief, and sixty-one years later, or in 1713, Kolben states that their descendants were living near St. Helena Bay. There does not therefore appear any reason for doubting that it was from this tribe the modem Griquas derived their name.

There is however a vast difference between the tribe we are now treating of and those of the Namaqua and Korana. In these last we had the pure descendants of the old tribes with which the early Dutch settlers carried on their profitable bartering, but in the case of the Griqua it is very different. Although since 1813 the whole of them have adopted the appellation of Griqua, a large majority of them were not only descendants of the Hottentot tribe we have mentioned but of the Dutch colonists also.

They were, in fact, a race of mixed blood, many of them being half-castes, the offspring of Hottentot and Bush women by the old colonists. This mongrel breed afterwards intermixed with the miserable remnant of the true Grigriqua, who appear to have principally occupied their time, for a considerable period previous to their great migration to the eastward, in wandering about in the neighbourhood of Piquetberg and along the borders of the present Division of Clanwilham.

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While these latter have always considered themselves Griquas, the larger portion of those now included under this designation were formerly called Bastaards, a name which, however distasteful to European notions, was one of which they were originally particularly proud. The preponderance of the Dutch element amongst them was shown by the Dutch language being spoken by the more influential majority and by its superseding that of the purely Hottentot minority.

We shall find as we proceed, that at the commencement of their career the purer Griqua element seemed to congregate around the elder Kok, whilst those of mixed descent formed the principal following of the Bastaard chief Barend Barends ; and that these two diverse elements only combined when from the force of circumstances their leaders entered into a kind of mutual bond for the purpose of strengthening themselves, and that they might defend themselves against a common danger.

From the records which have been preserved it would appear that the early condition of the Griquas who first gathered round Kok, as their chosen captain, was on a lower level in the scale of civilisation than even that of the Koranas. In a report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Aborigines, they are thus described : In 1800, when their first missionary, Mr. Anderson, went among them, they were a horde of wandering naked savages, subsisting by plunder and the chase. Their bodies were daubed with red paint, their heads loaded with grease and shining powder, with no covering but the filthy kaross over their shoulders.

Without knowledge, without morals, or any trace of civilisation, they were wholly abandoned to witchcraft, drunkenness, licentiousness, and all the consequences which arise from the unchecked growth of such vices. With his fellow labourer, Mr. Kramer, Mr. Anderson wandered about with them for five years and a half, exposed to all the dangers and privations inseparable from such a state of society, before they could induce them to locate where they afterwards settled.

The missionary Anderson, writing of this period, states : When I went among the Griquas, and for some time after, they were without the smallest marks of civilisation. If I except one, who had, by some means, got a trifling article of colonial raiment, they had not one thread of European clothing among them, and their wretched appearance and habits were such as might have excited in our minds an aversion for them, had we not been actuated by principles which led us to pity them and served to strengthen us in pursuing the object of our missionary work.

They were in many instances little above the brutes. It is a fact that we were among them at the hazard of our lives. This became evident to us from their own acknowledgment to us afterwards, they having confessed that they had frequently premeditated to take away our lives, and were prevented only from executing their purposes by what they now consider an Almighty power.

When we went among them, and for some time after, they lived in the habit of plundering one another, and they saw no moral evil in this, nor in any of their actions. Violent deaths were common, and I recollect many of the aged women told me their husbands had been killed in this way. Their usual manner of living was truly disgusting, and they were void of shame ; however, after a series of hardships which required much faith and patience, our instructions were attended with a blessing which produced a great change.

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The old Griquas were clad in the earlier days much in the same fashion as the other wild races by whom they were surrounded, viz. a bunch of leather strings about eighteen inches long hung from the woman's waist in front, and a prepared skin of a sheep or antelope covered their shoulders. The men wore a patch of an apron, as big as the crown of a hat, and a mantle exactly like that of the women.

To protect the skin from the sun by day and the cold by night, they smeared themselves with a compound of fat and ochre ; the head was anointed with pounded blue mica mixed with grease. The particles of shining mica, as they fell upon the body and on the strings of beads and brass rings, were considered highly ornamental.

The present Griquas, however, are clearly, as we have pointed out, an aggregation of individuals of comparatively very modem origin, whose homogeneity consisted only in the sameness of their wandering and plundering proclivities, and who could certainly lay no claim to being the descendants of the more ancient tribe called Grigriquas in the time of the early Dutch settlement. At the period when the elder Kok commenced his wanderings they could only have been few in number, a weak sept, consisting principally of the members of his own family and their adherents.

The Koranas started as a compact body on their north-eastern journey, at a time when they still retained a considerable degree of their original tribal organisation, and carried with them their tribal traditions and hereditary leaders. This movement commenced, as we have seen, at a much earlier date than that of the Koks, for we find that although Cornelius Kok, the elder, was an old man, he had never heard of the Koranas within the limits of the Colony.

In his time, however, the means of communication were rather difficult, and he and his embryo Griqua tribe moved diagonally across the Bushman country, and struck the 'Gariep, or Great river, much lower down than where the main body of the Koranas first came in contact with it.

Differing so greatly as these Griquas did from the earlier Korana emigrants, we can easily understand why such a mongrel and miscellaneous collection of people had neither hereditary chiefs nor hereditary traditions. This of course cannot be wondered at when we take into consideration the diverse and almost antagonistic elements of which this tribe was composed.

When Waterboer came to the head of affairs, the following elements were added to the original material : Korana, Bushmen,, and refugees from the Bachoana, chiefly of the Batlaru, Batlapin, and Basutu tribes ; while as his power increased, and the fame of it spread into the Colony, the loose materials of the colonial sweepings were powerfully attracted towards this new centre, in the shape of great numbers of other half-caste Hottentots, representatives of every remaining tribe and from every quarter of the old Colony, refugee slaves, especially after their emancipation, and men of every shade of mixture between these various races.

The newcomers brought with them not only some notions about European clothing, but, what was still more important to Griqua progress, a large number of them came possessed of horses and firearms. The very names which many of them bore marked the closer connexion between them and the old European colonists than had existed in the time of the Korana exodus.

Many of the latter, even in 1874-5, retained names which plainly indicated their Hottentot derivation, intermingled with a few others, such as Jager, Stuurman, Wildeman, Kwaaiman, Platje, January, August, April, September, October, November, and the like, evidently obtained while in temporary service among the neighbouring Boers or Griquas ; while among the others, who gloried rather than otherwise in being called Bastaards, we meet frequently with the following easily recognised colonial surnames, which at once explain their own history —

Kleinhans Pienaar Van Rooyen
Coetzee Cloete Potgieter
Kruger Gousen Swanepoel
Jansen Buiskes Lombard
Marais Van Wijk Greef
and many others, together with a few names showing English descent, such as Read, Bartlett, etc.

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It is certain that sometimes slaves and other retainers took the names of their master's families ; but in those of the Bastaards or Griquas bearing these names, their physical appearance admits of no question as to their mixed origin. These half-caste people were induced to migrate from the Colony, not only by their own desire to escape from the thraldom in which they had lived and to settle in a spot where they believed they would be subject to less restraint, but also to set up, as some of their friends fondly hoped, an independent state free from any extraneous interference.

Several causes led to this. By such a clearance the civil authorities imagined that they would rid themselves of an element which they saw growing and accumulating, and which they feared might, if not got rid of in time, ultimately prove exceedingly troublesome in the colony ; they were the debris of the tribes which had almost ceased to exist, the waifs of colonial life thrown upon society, and apparently, from a natural inertness of disposition, unable to compete with the more energetic races in the struggle for existence.

It was, therefore, considered by some that by collecting and placing them on one side, the difficulty would be reduced to a point, and thus rendered more manageable ; while, from a negrophilist point of view, it afforded the long desired opportunity to start a politico-religious community freed from the trammels of outside control, to build up a separate national existence under purely missionary influences under the patronage of a Society, whose well-meaning but frequently, through ignorance and inexperience, misguided interference has entailed an unmitigated increase of evil in almost every portion of the globe where they have intermeddled.

To attempt to establish a history for a race which, from the remotest ages, has been unable to build up a history for itself, must, one is inclined to believe, always prove a failure ; and to expect to turn men who have just been emancipated from the oppressions of generations, and from the debasement and degradation of serfdom and slavery, suddenly into a race of noble-minded patriots, can be an idea entertained only by enthusiastic visionaries, who hope for miracles in utter defiance of all the experience of past history.

In following out our investigation with regard to the migration of these Griquas, we will do so under the separate heads given below, that we may thereby obtain a clearer and more definite, and therefore more satisfactory view, of the race of people now under consideration.

A. The Founders of the Modem Griquas,
B. The Family of the Africaanders and the Clan of the Jagers (the Hunters),
C. Barend Barends, the original Chief of the Sept of the Bastaards,
D. Causes which forced the migration to the Eastward,
E. The early Griqua Settlement,
F. The Griquas of 1813,
G. The Griquas of 1820 under the rule of Waterboer,
H. The Griqua Chiefs,

(a). Adam Kok, of Philippolis,
(b). Cornelius Kok, of Campbell,
(c). Barend Barends, of Boetsap,
(d). Jan Bloem, the Younger,

I. Concluding Remarks.

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A. — The Founders of the Modern Griquas.

The name Kok, i.e. Cook, was said to have been derived from the circumstance of one of the progenitors of the family having served as a cook to one of the old Dutch governors. Old Adam Kok, however, who may be termed the founder of this family, and who was the great-grandfather of Adam Kok, the chief of Philippolis, and afterwards of Nomansland, was born about 1710.

Although of mixed descent, he was originally a slave, but by dint of industry he was able to collect a sufficient sum to purchase his freedom and subsequently to procure a farm among the colonists of the Cape. This farm appears to have been somewhere near the Piquetberg, where his son Cornelius was born. He also seems to have possessed property at the Khamiesberg, where his family sometimes resided. Here a number of Bastaards and many Hottentots and people of colour gathered around him. He is spoken of as a man superior to most of his fellows, and received a wand of office with the appointment of captain, or chief over the natives who had congregated around him.

The Chariguriquas or Grigriquas were then living to the south of Little Namaqualand. We can easily imagine the reason why one with a preponderance of white blood in his veins, and a man of substance also, was recognised as a leader among the Bastaards, who were drawn towards him by the fame of his riches, while the government wand ensured him the allegiance of the down-pressed serf-like Hottentots.

After a time this Adam sold his little domain and migrated to the country of the Namaquas. In this movement many of the Grigriquas, in the neighbourhood of whom he lived, connected themselves with him. In Namaqualand his subjects were again increased by the addition of a considerable number of Hottentots. After this he recrossed the river and settled at Pella, with one Mr. Albertse as his missionary, and from this point he made long hunting expeditions into the interior. Kok and his Griqua retainers pushed their excursions as far as the country where Campbell, Griquatown, and Boetsap are now situated. Here they found an abundance of all kinds of game, but no people occupying it except some stray Bushmen. No Kaffirs whatever were found.

It was in those days that these Griqua hunters first discovered and visited the strong fountains at Klaarwater and other places in what is now called Griqualand West, and when they or their friends years afterwards moved up the Great river and took possession of them, they did so without let or hindrance from any one, for the simple reason that neither the Batlapin tribe nor any other of the Bachoana was there to dispute their right, and the Bushmen as a matter of course made no resistance, the greater portion of them having been cleared out of the country by the Koranas or the previous hunting parties of the Griquas and Bastaards.

In 1788 Adam Kok, then a very old man, was still living near the Great river, and in 1795, finding himself too old and feeble for the cares of government, he transferred his chieftain-ship and staff of office to his eldest son Cornelius, who obtained great influence among all the natives, Koranas and others, with whom he came in contact.

This Cornelius was born in 1746 at the Piquet mountain. When he was a boy, he said, no Boer lived farther north than Oliphant River. The Bushmen to the eastward of Namaqualand were always at war both with the Colony and the Namaquas, but his father, by gentle treatment, was the means of bringing them to live in peace. At that time both Bushmen and Namaquas were much more numerous than at present. Many of the former were carried off by disease, others removed higher up the river to the eastward, while a considerable number of the latter crossed the river and took up their residence in Great Namaqualand. No person beyond, or to the north of, the Oliphant river at the time of his living at Piquetberg possessed a waggon, except his father and himself.

When his father removed to the north, Cornelius remained behind at the Khamiesberg. He could read and write, and had to a certain degree been civilised by intercourse with missionaries and colonists, and through frequenting Capetown and the Colony. He commanded great respect among his people, and by their aid and the services of the neighbouring Bushmen and Koranas had so far prospered that he had become the possessor of immense flocks of sheep.

Kok had the good sense to secure to himself the services of these native tribes, by giving them a certain number of sheep in charge, allowing them half the lambs for their trouble of herding. Their true and faithful accounting, annually, was proverbial, and thus he prevented both poverty in his neighbourhood and the consequence of want. By all accounts he lived in a style similar to that of the colonists on the border, and exhibited a good example to those about him by introducing ideas of regularity, comfort, necessary conveniences, and social duties, which raised his immediate followers far above the tribes around him.

This Cornelius Kok was not only a great flock-master, but a great hunter ; and apparently tired of the somewhat monotonous life of a Dutch burgher and actuated doubtlessly in the first instance more by ardour for the chase and love of hunting than anything else, he inspanned his waggon and left the Khamiesberg. Ranking, as we are informed he did, as a burgher, we presume that he and his immediate relatives, at least, had guns, which they took with them when he commenced his wanderings like his father before him.

He was acknowledged by the existing government as the successor of his father, and thus entrusted with the staff of office, possessing horses and firearms and flocks of almost patriarchal size, one of the primitive tokens of immense wealth, he must undoubtedly have appeared as a great man in the eyes of the natives among whom he travelled.

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The country abounded in game, large and small, gemsboks and elands, giraffes, white rhinoceroses, and many other large animals were numerous. In such a country, besides those who had adhered to the fortunes of his father, the expert and enthusiastic huntsman would soon get a considerable following around him, ready to assist him in the chase, and to feast and make merry upon the superabundance of flesh which its spoils afforded.. This in all probability was the time when his " faithful Griquas " first gathered round him in any considerable numbers.

Finding the wild life of the huntsman more congenial to his nature than following his sheep, which he seems in a great measure to have entrusted to the care of others, he continued his pursuit of game, wandering from place to place until he arrived on the banks of the 'Gariep or Great river.

A description has already been given of the degraded condition of the Griquas at this period.

In their early days, with the exception of their leader and his family, and the few Bastaards who were associated with him„ the whole of the horde still used the bow and arrow, the ancient weapons of their race. The nucleus of the future tribe was then composed of the half-caste family of the Koks and their purely Hottentot adherents ; after this date these were joined from time to time by scattered groups of other Bastaards, and thus the hands of Cornelius were gradually strengthened, and with the feeling of growing strength a little cattle lifting and marauding sprang up among his followers when game was difficult to procure. Mixing up a little conquest on his own part with his sporting occupations, he subdued and absorbed into his own tribe most of the wandering Koranas with whom he came in contact.

Having fixed upon a sort of central station on the Great river, he sallied out from this point upon hunting or other expeditions, some of which were extended to considerable distances. In one of these he came in contact with the Batlapin, who were then found at a place called Kama-piri, on the Kuruman river, not far below the present mission station.

Some writers have stated that he was the first, proceeding from a southerly direction, who discovered the Batlapin ; but we know now, as we have previously shown, that long before his arrival the Korana clans had invaded and settled in that part of the country, and had carried their marauding expeditions much farther to the northward than Kuruman ; and that they had been, according to the most orthodox manners of the times, on some occasions on friendly terms with the Batlapin, while on others they had relieved, or attempted to relieve, them of any number of superfluous cattle they could lay their hands on.

Molehabangwe, father of Mothibi and Mahura, and grandfather of Mankoroane, was the great chief of the Batlapin at the time of this visit of Kok, which appears to have been a most opportune one for these people, as it proved to be the means of saving them from the grasping clutches of their quondam friends and neighbours the Koranas.

At this time no Bachoana were found in the country south of the Kuruman river. The greater portion was, with the exception of those localities which had been appropriated by the invading Koranas, still in the occupation of its earliest known inhabitants, the Bushmen. The report of the Select Committee upon the Aborigines, already referred to, explains by whom these unfortunate people were eventually deprived of by far the largest tracts of their hunting grounds. In this report it is stated that the Griquas have been accused, and with much probability of truth, of having whilst in a savage state treated the Bushmen with barbarity, and expelled them from the greater part of their country. This however was before the missionaries went to them !

It is difficult to reconcile the statement in the last paragraph with the fact that the missionaries had been wandering with the Griquas on the left, or south side, of the Orange river for several years before they crossed it, a part of the Bushman country in which they, the Griquas, never made any permanent settlement, and that it was after these missionaries had themselves selected, and appropriated, the country around Klaarwater as a home for their Griqua protégés that the great extension and permanent usurpation of the Bushman territory by these Griquas commenced !

We are assured that the Griqua chiefs of the infant settlement always treated the Bushmen with consideration and kindness. Of this we shall have better means of judging as we proceed, and shall discover that this kindness was strikingly exemplified by depriving the latter of the last vestige of their lands and giving them in exchange a few cattle to live upon, as if the men of this wild hunter-race, who rejoiced m the untrammelled freedom of the mighty plains by which they were surrounded, could be suddenly turned, by a feat akin to legerdemain, into mere cattle-herds !

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Be this as it may, it is quite certain that they at the same time must have received very different treatment from the hands of a large portion of the Griqua people, and that, up to a very recent period, for in 1820 the hatred of the Bushmen was so intense against the Griquas that they never lost an opportunity of killing one, could they catch him alone in the veld.

In 1801 Africaander and his banditti were spreading terror through the entire country, and had carried their depredations as far as the Korana kraals in the neighbourhood of t'Keys, or 'Kheis.

The Griquas were at that time living scattered from t'Koubahas (Bitter Dacha), then the headquarters of Cornelius Kok, and some distance below 'Kheis, on the Great river, to a little above its junction with the Vaal or 'Gij-'Gariep. Another portion of the Kok family, Jan Kok with his family and retainers, were living at t'Karaap, not far from Modder Fontein to the right of these rivers, while the missionaries Kicherer, Anderson, and Kramer were found at t'Aakaap, or Rietfontein, with their followers. A few Koranas were also encamped at the same place.

Such then appears to have been the position of the Griquas who acknowledged the authority of the Koks. The country to the north and north-west of this was still in the sole and undisturbed possession of the Bushmen.

Having thus traced the career of the elder Koks, the real founders of the modern Griquas, to this point, we will now pass on to the consideration of the next section, especially as the latter part of the life of Cornelius being connected with the early Griqua Settlement, it will be better, to avoid unnecessary repetition, to defer any further remarks which we may have to make with regard to his actions and his wanderings until we treat upon that subject. After a lengthened life he died at 'Kou'nou-sop's drift on the Vaal, after nominating his son Adam as chief of the whole Griqua nation, while Cornelius Kok of Campbell was appointed chief of the family branch of the Koks.

B. — The Family of the Africaanders and the Clan of the Jagers or Hunters.

The Africaanders belonged to a large tribe of Hottentots who were at one time called Jagers or the Hunters, and who lived within a hundred miles of Capetown, near the rugged Witsenberg range of mountains. Unfortunately the original native name has been lost, and it is therefore impossible to identify them with any of the old tribes of the early Dutch Settlement. Being unable to maintain their ground against the continual encroachments of the Dutch, they were at length driven back from one point to another farther in the interior, while those who lingered behind were compelled to become the submissive serfs of the farmers.

The Africaanders were the ruling family. The father of Jager Africaander, the most prominent and notorious member of it, had succeeded by hereditary right to the chieftainship of the diminished remnant of the tribe, which he resigned to his eldest son Jager, afterwards called Christian Africaander. In his younger days he had pastured his own flocks and hunted his own game not only over the Witsenberg but the Winterhoek mountains, once the strongholds of his clan. He had a dash of European blood in his veins. For a considerable time he lived in the service of a farmer in the district of Tulbagh, part of his time being employed in tending the farmer's cattle, which were sent at certain seasons to the vicinity of the Great river.

It was about this time that the Cape first came into the hands of the English, when a report was industriously circulated by evil-minded persons that all the Hottentots were to be forced into the army, with the design of sending them out of Africa. This report induced Africaander and his sons to resolve to leave the colony altogether, or to live near its limits, to escape being forced into the army.

Their master, Piet Pienaar, who appears to have been invested with the authority of a fieldcornet, trekking about the same time, they removed with him to the extreme border beyond the Oliphant river.

Here, Africaander and his sons, Jager, Titus, Klaas, David, and Jacobus, together with the remains of his tribe, which had now dwindled to a few families, took up their abode. On account of the increasing age of the father and the shrewdness and prowess of the eldest son, Jager, the latter had obtained the reins of government of his tribe at an early age. Pienaar found in him a faithful and intrepid shepherd, while his valour in defending and increasing the herds and flocks of his master enhanced his value, at the same time that it rapidly matured the latent principle which afterwards recoiled on the devoted family and carried devastation to whatever quarter he directed his steps.

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He and his brothers were for a considerable time employed by Pienaar in commandos against the Bushmen, Namaquas, and other defenceless natives of the interior, and were furnished with muskets and powder for that purpose. In this way they were taught to rob for their master, which ultimately led to their setting up for themselves.

On these occasions the unhappy victims of their attack were generally surprised in their villages at night, the men were shot, and the surviving women and children, together with the cattle, were captured. When these commandos were undertaken, the practice was for a few Boers to unite their separate strength, and the principal part of the booty was divided among themselves, a fractional share only being given to the slaves or Hottentots who were in their service.

There were at that time a few Boers in that district who were noted for the cruelties and murders they committed upon the defenceless natives in these marauding and plundering expeditions, and among these the name of Pienaar was not the least notorious. We have already seen the success which attended some of these unjustifiable forays, and the lion's share which fell to Pienaar upon such occasions. Not only avaricious, but licentious and cruel, his conduct towards the females on his farm at length aroused the jealousy of Africaander and his brothers.

On expeditions where plunder was the object, Pienaar generally accompanied the party, but when they were not engaged in such serious matters they were often sent from home under circumstances which confirmed the suspicions to which allusion has already been made, the wives and daughters of the chief and his brothers being the principal objects of these illicit attentions.

The Africaanders had been trained to the use of firearms, and to act not only on the defensive, but the offensive also, and now they, who had been signally expert in recapturing stolen cattle from the Bushmen, refused to go on any more such expeditions. A tempest was brooding in their bosoms. They signified their wish, with the farmer's permission, to have some reward for their often galling servitude, and to be allowed to retire to some of the sequestered districts beyond, where they might dwell in peace. This desire was however sternly refused, and followed by severity still more grievous.

Had Pienaar treated his subjects with common humanity, not to say gratitude, he might have died honourably and prevented the catastrophe which befell the family and the train of robbery, crime, and bloodshed which quickly followed that event.

An incident, however, shortly afterwards occurred which brought matters to a climax. Information having come to Pienaar that the Bushmen had carried off some cattle from a Boer belonging to the district over which he was fieldcornet, he in his official capacity commanded them to pursue the Bushmen, in order to recapture the cattle. This order they positively refused to obey, alleging that his only motive for sending them on such an expedition was that they might be murdered, and he thereby get possession of their wives. Order after order was sent to their huts to summon them into the presence of their master, but which, in a dogged manner, they left unheeded.

In the evening Jager, with his brothers and some attendants, being again summoned by the exasperated farmer to appear at the door of his house, moved slowly up towards it. Titus, the next brother to the chief, dreading the farmer in his wrath, took his gun with him, which it being night he easily concealed. On reaching the front of the house, Jager, the chief, went up the few steps of the stoep leading to the door, to state their complaints, when Pienaar with his gun in his hand rushed furiously on the chieftain, and with one blow precipitated him to the bottom of the steps. Jager at the same moment seizing the gun, which was loaded with small shot, lodged the contents in his master's body.

As soon as Pienaar fell, the Africaanders entered the house, when the wife, who had witnessed the murder of her husband, shrieked and implored for mercy. They told her not to be alarmed, for they had nothing against her. They asked for the guns and ammunition which were in the place, which she promptly delivered to them. They then charged her not to leave the house during the night, as they could not ensure her safety if she and her family attempted to take to flight. This admonition was however disregarded, for overcome with terror two children who attempted to escape by the back door were immediately shot by a couple of Bushmen who were lying in wait. Mrs. Pienaar herself succeeded in reaching the nearest farm in safety.

Immediately after the fatal occurrence, Africaander rallied the remnant of his tribe, and with his family and the Hottentots in the service of Pienaar fled with as much expedition as possible towards Great Namaqualand, carrying with them whatever spoil they could secure, as well as all the muskets and ammunition which formerly belonged to their master. Having succeeded in effecting his retreat across the Great river, he fixed his abode on the opposite bank. From this point the formidable chief commenced his daring exploits against both the colonists and the neighbouring tribes, filling the borders of the colony to an extent of not less than three hundred miles with the terror of his name.

Attempts were made both on the part of the colonial government and the Boers themselves to avenge this outrage upon the Pienaar family, but the attempts were futile, and Africaander, notwithstanding their commandos and the rewards they offered for his apprehension dead or alive, maintained his position, and dared them to approach, his territory. In the meanwhile he and his brothers were not long in commencing offensive operations, and making reprisals upon the Colony. In their first expedition they took the farmers by surprise, and murdered a Boer named Engelbrecht, and likewise a Bastaard-Hottentot, from whom they carried off much cattle.

Immediately the missionaries arrived at Warm Bath in the Great Namaqua country, Africaander with his family came and took up his residence near them. For a time he behaved in an orderly and peaceable manner, but a circumstance occurred which led to the ruin of the settlement. Jager and Titus, as they dared not visit Capetown themselves after the murders they had perpetrated, employed a Hottentot named Hans Dreyer to take three spans or teams of oxen thither ; with two spans of these he was desired to purchase a waggon for them, and with the third to bring it home. On the way to Capetown Hans met a Boer to whom he was in debt, for which the Boer seized the whole of the oxen, upon which Hans returned to Namaqua- land, and refused to give any account of the oxen entrusted to his care. This conduct of Hans so exasperated the sons of Africaander that they attacked his kraal and murdered him.

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Not long after this occurrence the friends of Hans, with the assistance of some Namaquas, in their turn attacked the kraal of Africaander, and he, to be revenged on the Namaquas for aiding them against him, fell upon their kraal. These, finding themselves too weak to resist him, implored assistance from the Namaquas at Warm Bath, who, complying with their request, sent out a large armed party to defend them, which so enraged Africaander that he threatened destruction to the settlement.

He accomplished his threat in part, for he came against them and carried off a great number of their cattle. A numerous party of Namaquas pursued him to his kraal, where they carried on a kind of war, shooting at each other from behind bushes, none of them possessing sufficient courage to meet in the open field. However the Namaquas at length devised a prudent scheme for regaining their cattle, by taking possession of the watering place. In spite of Africaander's people, the cattle when thirsty made their way to the water, and were carried off in triumph by the Namaquas.

Africaander, renewing his threatenings against the Namaquas at Warm Bath, so intimidated them that they with the missionaries removed over the Great river to a place in Little or South Namaqualand. He commenced his operations by spreading devastation around the settlement ; for a whole month the missionaries were in a state of terror, hourly expecting the threatened attack.

The natives likened him to a lion, whose roar made the inhabitants of even distant hamlets fly from their homes. Yes, said one of their chiefs, I have for fear of his approach fled with my people, our wives, and our children to the mountain glens or wilderness, and spent nights amongst the beasts of prey, rather than gaze on the eyes of this lion and hear his roar. On one occasion the missionaries dug square holes in the ground, about six feet deep, that in case of an attack they might escape the balls ; there they remained for the space of a week, having the tilt sail of a waggon thrown over the mouth of the pit to keep off the burning rays of an almost vertical sun.

At length this life of suspense and anxiety became insupportable, and they retreated with their people to the south of the Great river. Scarcely had they departed when Africaander made his appearance before the place. Finding it abandoned, his followers commenced a rigid search for any spoils which might have been concealed in the earth, and in this they were but too successful. One of the chieftain's attendants strayed in the burying-ground, where already a few mounds distinguished it from the surrounding waste as a place for the dead.

Stepping over what he supposed to be a newly-closed grave, he heard to his surprise soft notes of music vibrate beneath. He stood motionless, gazing over his shoulder with open mouth and eyes dilated, hesitating whether to stand still and see the dead arise, which he had heard the missionaries preach about, or take to his heels. After no little palpitation of heart, he mustered courage to make another trial, for the tones he had heard had died away. His second leap again aroused the sepulchral harp, which now fell in soft but awful cadence on his ear. Without casting an eye behind, he darted off to the camp, and with breathless amazement announced to Africaander the startling discovery he had made of life and music in the grave.

The appearance of the man convinced Africaander that he was in earnest, for reason seldom reels in that country. The chief, fearless alike of the living or the dead, was not to be scared by a supposed spectre in a tomb. He arose, and ordering his men to follow him, went straight to the spot. One jumped and another jumped, and at each succeeding leap succeeding notes of the softest music fell upon the ear. Recourse was instantly had to exhumation, and the mysterious musician was soon dragged to light in the shape of the piano of the wife of the missionary Albrecht, which being too cumbrous to be taken with them in their hasty flight, had been buried in the spot where Africaander and his bandit followers found it. The triumphant chief and his adherents revelled in their ill-gotten spoils, and at their departure the fire-brand was stuck in the houses and huts and the entire place reduced to ashes.

Africaander now became a terror not only to the colony in the south, but also to the tribes on the north. The original natives of the country looked upon him as a common enemy. This led to pilferings and provocations on their part, which were sure to bring upon themselves a swift vengeance, with considerable interest. The tribes fled at his approach, and his name carried dismay even to the solitary wastes.

The success which in almost every instance followed the arms of such a small body of banditti as that of Africaander in the beginning of his career may be ascribed to his mode of warfare. The native method of carrying on hostilities was ever to keep themselves under cover, occasionally discharging their missiles, or firing an occasional shot, as any of the enemy exposed themselves.

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If both parties were of the same mind, this desultory skirmishing would be continued day after day, until one or other of the parties was weary. Africaander, on the other hand, always endeavoured to attack his enemy on the plain, or if they were entrenched among rocks or bushes, he instantly attempted to drive them from their sheltering places. By these tactics the conflict was soon decided. Africaander proved himself to be a man of prowess and capable of studying the results of the primitive method of native warfare, hence his constant victories.

His brother Titus was still more fierce and fearless than himself, and though a little man, he was an extraordinary runner and able to bear unparalleled fatigue. He has been known single-handed to overtake a party of twenty possessing firearms, and only to retire when his musket was shot to pieces in his hand. At length by incursions into the Colony and robbing the Boers, not only of their cattle, but of their muskets and powder, Africaander became very powerful. He was joined also by a European outlaw, as well as by some Bushmen and people of other tribes, and his horde grew into such formidable proportions that it was a standing menace to the whole of that portion of South Africa.

He commenced a regular system of depredations both upon the Namaquas and the Koranas. He pushed his forays against the latter so far to the eastward that he attacked the small clans which had settled in the neighbourhood of 'Kheis. Mr. Borcherds, who travelled through the country at the time, after crossing this ford to the left bank of the river, again heard reports of the cruelties committed by Africaander's brother Klaas. Danster, a petty chief of some emigrant Kaffirs, said that on one occasion he cut tobacco in small pieces, and spreading it close on a skin, induced some of the natives to 'pick it up, and while thus occupied they were attacked by a number of Africaander's men and cruelly put to death, and those who attempted to escape were shot.

Fearful stories were also circulated about the atrocities committed by these banditti upon the Namaquas. Many had been murdered, women and children had been tied to trees, and after being ill-treated, killed ; whole communities had been robbed of their cattle, so that many of the tribes, not being able to defend themselves with inferior weapons, were wandering about in a state of want and privation, many perishing from hunger ; while the immense number of cattle thus obtained were exchanged again with some unprincipled colonists, who believed more in illicit bartering than fighting, for further supplies of arms and ammunition.

It is thus from the tragical fate of Pienaar we find a chain of events following one another with considerable rapidity, which must have had a marked influence upon the eastward migration of the clan of the Koks and the main body of the emigrant Bastaards and Griquas, as at an early date they became involved in a series of disputes and conflicts with the redoubtable chieftain of the Trans-Gariepine bandits.

The farmers finding that they had failed to capture the outlawed Africaander, bribed those then living on the banks of the Great river under their chief Barend Barends to make the attempt. This gave rise to a bitter and deadly feud between them, resulting in numerous severe and bloody encounters between the Africaanders, who were urged by motives of self-defence and a desire to wreak vengeance on their enemies, the farmers and their allies, and the Griqua chief Barend Barends, who was impelled to the conflict both by the desire of reward and the hope of obtaining additional loot in the shape of captured cattle. Neither, however, gained any decided advantage over the other, although they dreadfully harassed one another and intensified the feeling of hatred and hostility which had sprung up between them.

In 1812-13, at the time of Mr. Campbell's first visit, he states that in every kraal he came to the very mention of Africaander's name caused a trembling amongst the inhabitants. From Pella he dispatched a conciliatory letter to this notorious brigand. Increasing years, doubtlessly, made him begin to feel weary of a life of disquiet and rapine, and he forwarded a favourable reply.

Missionaries were sent to him, when he and some of his brothers became converts. He accompanied Mr. Moffat to Capetown, and had an interview with the governor, Lord Charles Somerset, and ultimately died in the odour of sanctity. During these few evanescent years there was a lull in the stormy region of the Gariepine valley, and for a time there was rest and quiet for its inhabitants.

Scarcely, however, had his death taken place when the majority of his followers reverted to their former career of plundering and murder. Being able to muster some three hundred men, with two hundred stand of arms in their possession, they soon became as formidable and destructive as ever to the comparatively helpless tribes around them, while they extended their marauding expeditions as far north as the Ovaherero, until they became, as Africaander had been before them, the scourge and terror of the whole of this part of Africa. Some of the smaller Korana clans were reduced to a state of famine, when numbers perished from hunger.

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In 1823 Mr. Thompson met some of these unfortunate wretches near the junction of the 'Gham'ka or 'Ga'ma (the Lion's river) and the Hartebeest river. These fugitive Koranas were mere skin and bone, the women perfectly naked, walking skeletons, who had for many days lived entirely on gum and a little brackish water. One, a young woman, but a cripple, was sitting on the earth, her eyes fixed on the ground, which she did not attempt to raise even when spoken to. An infant lay in her naked lap, wasted like herself to a skeleton, which every now and then applied its little mouth alternately to the shrivelled breasts of its dying mother.

Near by stood a wooden vessel with a few spoonfuls of muddy water. She and an old woman, who was in the same condition by her side, had been left by their relatives to perish, because they were helpless when famine pressed sore upon the horde. A little farther on were several more Korana women and children, in a condition not much better than those just left. The men belonging to the party had been absent several days in quest of game, and the women had been left to subsist on gum until their return.

These Koranas, like the rest of their nation, had once possessed cattle, but had been reduced to these extremes by being plundered by their neighbours. They lived on the banks of the Hartebeest river, and were reduced to exist in precisely the same manner as the Bushmen, killing game by poisoned arrows and by pitfalls with a sharp stake fixed in the centre ; but although they had constructed so many of the latter along the banks that it was dangerous to travel along them, the extreme drought had not only driven away all the game from that part of the country, but had also destroyed all the edible bulbs upon which they might have existed, thus reducing them to extreme destitution. It is worthy of remark, however, that no instance of cannibalism was heard of, either among the Hottentots or the Bushmen, even in their direst extremities.

It was not only in this locality that extreme wretchedness was to be found : the state of the entire country along the whole course of the 'Gariep or Great river was most deplorable. It had become a place of resort for numerous bands of banditti, consisting chiefly of Bastaards, Hottentots, and runaway slaves. Open war had broken out amongst the different factions in Griqualand.

A large number of the disaffected had removed to the mountains east of the Zeekoe river, and had betaken themselves once more to the lawless and bandit life from which the missionaries after years of danger and difficulty had happily reformed them. They had plundered the helpless Bachoana and Basutu clans in the most unprovoked and cruel manner. They had destroyed or dispersed whole tribes, by robbing them of their cattle and even of their children, emulating the atrocities and augmenting the miseries inflicted by the savage Mantatees.

At that time the Bastaard population was spread along the banks of the 'Gariep for an extent of at least 600 miles. Their numbers, estimated altogether, amounted to about five thousand souls, and they had in their possession at least seven hundred muskets. They readily obtained constant supplies of ammunition, notwithstanding all the proclamations to the contrary, from the Boers, whom great profits tempted to carry on this traffic in defiance of the colonial regulations and the claims of humanity.

The profits of this smuggling traffic were immense, as for every pound of powder sold to the banditti an ox or a cow was given in exchange. Such then was the chaotic state of affairs in 1823, and it was only around the contracted centre of Griquatown, under the immediate control of Mr. Melvill and the missionaries that any signs of peace could be found.

We learn from the foregoing facts that the influence exerted by this brigand chief over the people who had gathered round him was similar for good or evil to that of every other native ruler, who has by his own personal daring and achievements brought himself into note. It was of a purely personal character, and ceased to operate when he himself ceased to exist.

Thus, when in the full flush of victory he led his followers from one scene of rapine and bloodshed to another, they followed him with loud acclaim and without questioning ; when from increasing age he became weary of strife, the recollection of his power was sufficient to keep them all in a state of superficial submissiveness to his will and desires ; but no sooner had he passed from the scene than among his late followers years of painful missionary labour appeared thrown to the winds in a moment, and they returned apparently with renewed zest and eagerness to their old occupation of plunder and violence, which would have appeared astonishing, did not history teach us that such a sudden revulsion is but a natural reaction in the untutored mind of the savage when he finds himself released from a control the beneficial effects of which he can neither appreciate nor understand.

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BAREND BARENDS, THE ORIGINAL CHIEF OF THE SEPT OF THE BASTAARDS


The exact origin of this man and his family does not appear to be known. It is, however, certain that they were leaders among the Bastaard emigrants who were then flocking into the Gariepine valley, before the missionaries first visited, in their perplexity and distress, the elder Cornelius Kok at the Khamiesberg.

Barend Barends was in those days so far a chief that he had received a staff of office, similar to that bestowed upon the Koks and other native captains, showing that his position was recognised by the constituted authorities of the period. While the purer Griqua portion of the future tribe was gathering about the great flock-master Kok, Barend and his family seem to have formed the centre around which the Bastaard element of the same infant community congregated. This fact will make itself more clearly apparent when we come to treat of his rule at Boetsap and his migrations from that point.

The Barendses, as we have already seen, were sufficiently powerful to cope for a considerable time with all the difficulties of their exposed position. The Bastaards under them, or acknowledging their leadership, approximated more nearly in their customs and ideas to the border colonists, the backwoods-men of South Africa, than any other, and with whom they evidently retained friendly relations, as we find that after the Pienaar tragedy the latter solicited the cooperation of Barend Barends in their vain attempts to arrest the brigand chief of the Africaanders.

This proposition, as we have already learnt, was agreed to, and thus both he and his brothers were brought into hostile collision with the most formidable native leader to be found in the history of the Lower 'Gariep.

His brother Nicholas Barends is described by Mr. Moffat as being a very superior man, both in appearance and intellect, with an excellent memory, and good descriptive powers. In the conflicts which ensued between themselves and Africaander, on one occasion Barends' party, who were far superior in numbers, and were headed by Nicholas Barends, unexpectedly carried off every ox and cow belonging to Africaander, only a few calves being left in the stall.

After a desperate, though very unequal, contest for a whole day, having repeatedly taken and lost their cattle, the Africaanders returned home, slaughtered the calves which were left them, and rested a couple of days in order to dry the flesh in the sun, ready for an intended campaign.

For several days they pursued their course along the northern bank of the Great river, and having by spies found out the rendezvous of the enemy on the southern side, they passed beyond them, in order to attack them from a quarter on which they fancied themselves safe. They swam over in the dead of night, with their ammunition and clothes tied on their heads and their guns on their shoulders. The little force thus prepared seized their opportunity, and when all the enemy were slumbering in fancied security, aroused them by a volley of stones falling on their fragile huts.

The inmates rushed out, and were received by a shower of arrows ; and before they could fairly recover their senses and seize their guns, the discharge of musketry convinced them that they were besieged by a host in a most favourable position. They consequently fled in the greatest consternation, leaving the captured cattle as well as their own in the hands of the Africaanders.

It was about this time that on the invitation of Barend Barends the missionaries joined the Bastaards on the banks of the 'Gariep, and it was from these again that a select party, though a mixed multitude, finally terminated a migratory life by settling at the spot afterwards called Griquatown, in 1804, with Messrs. Anderson and Kramer. They were members of distinct tribes, having different languages, customs, and grades of honour, from that of the descendant of the colonial farmer to the very lowest state of degradation in the Bushmen.

Their government was of a mingled character, comprising the patriarchal, despotic, monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic, each party having its claims, either of birth, power, numbers, or hereditary right, exhibiting all the phases of a tropical thunder-cloud, which rolls on in wild and black confusion till it bursts forth scattering terror and death.

We have already seen that in 1801 these people had so far advanced to the eastward, in detached parties, that the one more directly under the care of the missionaries, which appears to have formed the vanguard of this movement, was then found some twenty hours of waggon travelling beyond the drift at Prieska, which would be probably some fifty or sixty miles ; the family clan of the Koks, which still remained on the southern side of the river and considerably to the westward, bringing up the rear.

We will now proceed to the next section of our subject, and consider the causes which governed the direction of the Griqua migration.

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D. — Causes which forced the Migration of the Griquas to the Eastward.

From what we have already gathered concerning the turbulent career of the Africaanders and the bitter hatred existing between them and their rivals the Barendses, these circumstances of themselves would form an almost sufficiently strong motive to have impelled the Griqua leaders in an easterly direction.

Nothing was to be gained in the west, the road in that direction was in a great measure barred by the armed bands acting under the inspiration of the notorious Africaander, who had guns in their hands and ammunition in their pouches, from whom little was to be expected but hard blows and dangerous wounds ; while beyond them, at no great distance, was the impassable barrier of the Great Waters which, centuries before, had turned the forefathers of the Hottentot race from their original course towards the setting sun.

To the west then all was repellent, but to the eastward another prospect appeared. In that direction an apparently virgin country spread out before them, watered by a stream surpassing, according to their knowledge, all others in magnitude ; plains swarming with game, and pools of water teeming with hippopotami ; a race of people whose puny shafts were of little avail against the unerring bullet ; and still beyond them, instead of the Great Waters, as in the opposite direction, with the dread and mystery which overshadowed them, were tribes of unknown numbers, equally or even more defenceless in point of weapons than the dwarf hunters of the plains, possessors of countless herds, promising endless spoil, which some of them had already, as the companions of the Koks, or the marauding Bloem, gazed upon.

The missionaries who were leading the way were probably in their simplicity and ignorance dreaming of conducting their proselytes far away from the haunts of wicked men, and founding a place of eternal peace and quiet in the depths of the wilderness.

There were other causes, doubtless, which gave additional impetus to this eastward movement, besides the unceasing depredations of Africaander and his ruthless banditti, and the feuds which rose up between themselves and the Bastaards of the Gariepine valley in consequence of them. A general insurrectionary movement of the Hottentot race seemed to have spread itself even into that remote portion of the country.

We learn from Mr. Barcherds that, on the 20th of December 1798 the landdrost of Stellenbosch received information that the Hottentots of Little Namaqualand were turbulent, had assembled in large bodies, and had seized five farms, murdered one man, taken twenty muskets, and carried off a number of cattle ; when immediate orders were dispatched to the fieldcornet Van der Westhuyzen to call upon the inhabitants of his ward to render assistance to those in Little Namaqualand. These proceedings of the landdrost were approved of by the governor, who directed that no violence should be committed against the Hottentots except in self-defence.

Fortunately for the moment the commando had the desired effect ; the Hottentots were again quiet, no one had been shot nor any violence exercised, and only one person, Gerrit Owies, who had imprudently parted from the commando, was killed, not by a Hottentot, but by the arrow of a Bushman. Part of the stolen cattle and muskets was recovered, but the chief disturbers had retired to the Great or Orange river, and scarcity of grass and weakness of the horses had prevented further pursuit.

There was no time for congratulation upon this partial success, for thirteen days after the receipt of the above intelligence, J. A. van Wyk, fieldcornet of the Hantam, reported that Africaander with a band of more than one hundred followers had murdered a farmer named Hermanus Engelbrecht, and had carried off 3,700 sheep and goats, 446 head of cattle, eight horses, three muskets, and other property, besides two waggons, and had retreated with his booty to the Orange river.

Again orders were issued to raise a commando and pursue the marauders ; but before the results of this expedition could be learnt, the disturbances at Graaff-Reinet had come to a head, and the governor had ordered General Vandeleur to march to the rebellious district with a sufficient force to afford protection to the well-disposed inhabitants, and thus the disturbances and outrages on the northern border remained unchecked.

In December 1801 Fieldcornet Jacob Kruger reported that Floris Langman, his wife and three children, and five or six of his domestics had been cruelly murdered ; while the fieldcornet of Cedarbergen sent intelligence that the Hottentots were refusing to take service and preparing to congregate with arms as far as behind Hantam. Upon receipt of this report, the lieutenant-governor General Dundas promptly authorised a commando to pursue the murderers, but recommended cautious treatment and forbearance to be shewn to the Hottentots, so as not to cause aversion by uncalled for severity to make them dangerous enemies instead of useful servants.

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Thus the entire northern border, as well as the eastern, was in a state of anarchical confusion, and we find one atrocity following the other in quick succession, for scarcely had the last intelligence been received when an express came from Gerrit Maritz, the fieldcornet of the Roggeveld, stating that Cornelius Coetzee, together with his two sons, a butcher named Frederik Werner, and his servant Frans Scherpenaard, had been murdered by his own slaves and Hottentots, that the house had been plundered and the money with a waggon and oxen had been taken, and also that the wife of one of Coetzee's sons was missing.

In this case a commando immediately pursued the murderers and captured the greater number of them ; although Fieldcornet Jacob Kruger stated that the marauding party was still about sixty-eight strong, some of them being armed with muskets.

The Koks also, who were then living at their camp of t'Kow-bahas, became involved in this surging whirlpool of bloody strife, Barend Barends appears by this time to have given up the struggle and retired with his flocks and herds farther to the north in company with the missionaries, but they, at the time Mr. Borcherds visited their kraal in February 1801, were engaged in hostilities with Africaander.

Cornelius, the elder, was absent on an expedition against him, and Adam, his son, had been left in charge of the kraal. A detachment of the Bastaards, mounted and armed, had come down the river from T'Karaap for the purpose of joining him in this attack, when they succeeded in capturing thirty-six head of cattle, although both Africaander and Stephanus, his European associate, escaped.

With this evidence before us of the turbulent state of Little Namaqualand and the lower Gariepine valley, it can be no matter of wonder that there was a general movement towards the east amongst the Bastaards and Griquas under the Koks and Barend Barends. We will therefore proceed to the next stage of our investigation.

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E. — The Early Griqua Settlement.

In or about 1800 the missionaries Anderson and Kramer discovered the springs at Klaarwater, the spot where Griquatown sprang up after they had induced the Griquas to settle there and relinquish their wandering propensities.

With regard to this occupation of Klaarwater, we glean the following from the Report before referred to. I never, says the writer, understood that when the missionaries discovered the fountains there were any tribes occupying the place. They found that part of the country empty, and took possession of it. Upon this point it is only necessary to remark that any one who has studied the habits of the Bushmen knows that many of the small tribes wander about from fountain to fountain, according to the migrations of the game and the varying seasons, and that still, although these tribes were widely scattered and sparsely sprinkled over the country, it was none the less their own.

To whom else could the claim possibly belong ? The writer during several years' residence in Griqualand West was informed both by old Koranas and Bushmen that when the former arrived in the country that portion of it now under discussion was fully occupied by Bushmen.

We know also from Korana evidence that the Koranas had a kraal or town at the springs at Campbell, and also an encampment at Klaarwater itself for a considerable time, long before the alleged discovery of this water.

We know further that the Bushmen resented their occupation of the place, and a large body of the latter attacked them there in consequence ; and that these same Koranas retreated subsequently from it, not on account of the water failing, but from these very attacks which the owners of the soil made upon them. In addition to this, as a further proof of Bushman occupancy, during one of the writer's visits to Griquatown he discovered some Bushman paintings on some rocks in the Griquatown hills, which were certainly done before the missionaries took possession of the place, and not afterwards when the valley was occupied by men with guns in their hands ever ready to hunt down the Bushmen upon the shortest notice.

The evidence therefore is conclusive, that instead of the country being without owners when these pioneer-missionaries arrived at the springs, its real possessors had just about that time wandered to some other portion of their hunting grounds. The twang of the bow and the cry of the wild hunter had been the only sounds which had echoed among the rocks and groves of its hills, covered as they were at that time with virgin forests of the wild olive tree.

One is surprised to learn from a letter from the Rev. Dr. Philip to Lieutenant-Colonel Wade, that after all the agitation about Griqua claims the missionaries Anderson and Kramer took possession of the springs, not in the name of any individuals, but in that of the London Missionary Society, thus assuming to themselves the power of ejecting any person from their infant dominion who was not subservient to their rule.

This power, we shall find in the subsequent career of the people under them, was not a mere technical fiction, but one upon which they acted. Not only was the land to be in their name, but the chiefs themselves must be men of whom they approved. In the letter above referred to is the following sentence bearing upon this subject : " the only chief the Griquas had among themselves at this period was old Kok, and he was so far from being an independent chief that he had the staff of a Hottentot captain, which he had received from the colonial government, and he did not then accompany them to the new territory, but retired to the Khamiesberg."

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From what follows one cannot help suspecting that the old man, both shrewd and wise in his generation, finding that his own influence was gradually being undermined and lost in the growing influence of the missionary teachers, became weary of the sham, and that the reason of his not being an independent chief arose not so much from the fact of his having inherited and accepted a bauble in the shape of a wand of office which he carried with him into the wilderness, as the trammels which were gradually being spread around him by the men who were assuming the guidance and governance of his tribe.

Seeing that up to the time the missionaries induced these Griquas to settle at Griquatown, they were a mere set of miserable nomads, without home and without territory, it is quite certain that their claims commenced after this settlement, and therefore not under the elder Cornelius Kok. We have seen that this chief obtained great influence among all the natives, whom he conciliated and subdued more by kindness, that is by the method which most quickly reached the natives' hearts when half-starved and pinched with hunger, viz. supplying them with plenty of flesh, the spoils of the chase, than by proving the strength of his powder in shooting them down.

In this he doubtless shewed his wisdom, but at the same time we cannot discover that he set up any great land claims : that phase of Griqua occupation came afterwards.

Under the powerful patronage of the London Missionary Society, whose members in those days could do no wrong, the power of annexation displayed by their Griqua protégés seems to have been amazing. In the course of a few years they claimed the sovereignty of any or every tract of country over which they had either hunted or where their cattle had trekked.

This was certainly not the policy adopted in the days of their old chief Cornelius Kok, as we are informed by a most reliable authority, the Rev. J. Campbell, that he always evinced a more friendly and conciliatory spirit towards the Bushmen than many others ; and on one occasion, when he intended to send cattle to feed in their part of the country, he first asked the Bushman captain what he should give for permission to do so. Having once heard some person mention twelve thousand rixdollars, without knowing its value, the captain demanded that sum.

Kok told him that rixdollars would be of no use to him, he would therefore give him a sheep for every two thousand rixdollars, and the captain was highly pleased with the six sheep instead of the twelve thousand rixdollars which he had asked.

After the departure of Cornelius Kok, the Griquas who remained certainly did not display, although more immediately under the rule of their religious guides, the same spirit of conciliation. That the Bushmen resented the despotic occupation of their country is certain ; this is proved even by the scattered incidents which have been recorded by those who travelled through it during that period. Thus we learn that a short distance from Griquatown there is a spring called Kogel-been (Bullet-leg) Fontein, so called from a Bushman captain who was wounded in the leg near the place by a Griqua, after having stolen some cattle. The Griquas, we are told, about the mission, were much exasperated against the neighbouring Bushmen.

The poor Bushmen say in defence of their conduct that the country was originally theirs, that the Griquas have seized the fountains of water and shot almost all the game, and that they are forced to steal or to starve. The Griquas, on the other hand, urge in their defence that their chief dependence for subsistence is on their cattle, that it is hard to be deprived in one night of their principal means of support by those savages who will neither sow nor rear cattle.

Mr. Campbell, however, who saw much of these Bushmen during the course of his journeys and is certainly no mean authority upon the subject, considers, notwithstanding all the charges brought against them, that these Bushmen, wild as they undoubtedly are, are nevertheless more docile than any of the other native nations, and more grateful for kindness shewn to them.

In almost every instance, as we have seen and shall see more fully as we proceed, their territory was forcibly taken possession of. Now and then, in a few isolated cases, when they protested against the intrusion, some trivial recompense was offered to them, which thus, at some subsequent period, formed the pretext of purchase, and thus step by step, either by force or fraud, the unfortunate Bushmen found themselves driven from all the available springs in the country.

That such a people as the early Griqua emigrants should have acted in this manner is not surprising, for they were described as being, for years after Mr. Anderson joined them, a people who not only neither planted nor sowed, but who never exercised any sentiment of either justice or mercy to their neighbours. But that men who had adopted " the rights of the Aborigines " for their watchword should have been so obtuse as not to be able to distinguish who were the true aborigines to whom those rights belonged, seems certainly rather surprising.

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There appeared at the time a disposition on the part of the friends of the Griquas to put down every thing to their penetration and powers of observance, thus we have been told the springs at Klaarwater were discovered by the missionaries with the Griquas, although it is quite certain that they had been occupied for generations before by the Bushmen, that the Toovenaar Koranas under 'Kunapsoop halted there for a time, in their migrations to the Malalarene, and that the Koks in their hunting expeditions visited them.

Again, the springs at Campbell were said to be discovered by the same enterprising natives, although we know that they were in the occupation of the Bushmen for centuries before, after which they were seized by the Koranas, who held them for about a year and then left them, when the Bushmen once more returned to the spot.

This last discovery was said to have been made by the Griquas in 1805, after which they took possession of them, and commenced cultivation before any arrangement was ever thought of with the previous owners of the ground, although we are told that a Bushman called October Balie was found living there, and was supposed to have some right to the land. Much has been said and written about one hundred and fifty rixdollars given as purchase money to the said Bushman, on account of which the claim to the so-called Campbell Lands, a tract of country extending many miles, has been built up ; as if this one man could dispose of the independent rights of his countrymen, men living in different portions of the wonderful range of the 'Kaap, and of clans different from his own.

Besides, from the observations of Cornelius Kok the elder, dollars were not very plentiful among the Griquas in those days, and Mr. Campbell in 1820 gives us a slightly different version of this land transaction. He tells us that finding the Griquas intended making a permanent settlement at the spot, the captain of the Bushmen who resided there complained to Cornelius Kok, the chief of the Griquas at Campbell and the eldest of all the Griqua captains, that he was cutting down a wood and digging out the roots of the trees that belonged to him and afforded him and his people a shade during the summer.

Mr. Campbell states that after this Cornelius gave him as a recompense two oxen and ten goats. He also ploughed land for him, in which he sowed a bushel of wheat, that in the harvest produced six sacks full. The Bushman being so successful in his demand upon the father, was encouraged to ask something of the son, Abraham, for the ground he had ploughed up, and he obtained from him six sheep.

These payments were evidently intended by the Bushman captain as compensation on account of the Griquas settling at the springs at Campbell and for the right of ploughing there, but he never dreamt for a moment that such a transaction was to deprive him and his countrymen of their ancient territorial rights over a large extent of country. This transaction, however, was evidently looked upon by the Griquas as an act of generosity on the part of the Koks, for, adds this writer, these were freewill offerings, as the poor Bushman had no means to enforce his demand. The Bushman's right to make it was never once taken into consideration.

As we have said, the original intention evidently was that this arrangement conveyed the right only to the cultivated grounds, together with the privilege of cutting down necessary timber, and also allowed a fair and reasonable amount of grazing ; but in lieu of this, this paltry purchase was made the foundation of the Griqua claim to the much-spoken-of Campbell grounds, equal to several English counties in extent. Thus we shall find in all and every case of the same kind, the rights of the true aborigines were trampled under foot without hesitation, although the ground had been in the possession of their forefathers from time immemorial.

How different would have been the case, and how great the outcry that would have been raised by the same class of men, had any attempt been made to dispossess these protégés of theirs, the par excellence in their sight, " poor natives," after comparatively but a few years' occupation of their easily obtained and ill-gotten territory ? No wonder then that the hatred of the despoiled Bushmen was so intense, that urged, as they felt themselves to be, by a stern lex talionis, they were, as Mr. Campbell tells us, pleased when one of these Griquas had been killed, with the reflection that they had thereby lessened the number of those who oppressed them.

Returning once more to the thread of Griqua history, we find after the departure of old Cornelius upon the establishment of Griquatown, that the missionaries for a time took the entire management of the affairs of the tribe into their own hands. Upon this point we gain some information from the letter of the Rev. Dr. Philip to the Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Wade, before referred to. He therein states that when the missionaries saw proper to separate civil from religious affairs, they recommended to the people to make choice of a chief as a civil magistrate, and Adam Kok was the person chosen on that occasion.

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About this time several writers speak of the Griqua chiefs, and Adam Kok is called the paramount chief. The probable explanation of this appears to be that Adam was the mission chief, while the others were heads or chiefs of independent outstations or kraals not acknowledging the jurisdiction of Griqua-town, and therefore not under the entire control of the missionaries.

Adam's more energetic successor, doubtless for the promotion of religion and morals, endeavoured to force all these discontents under the politico-religious government of the centre, of which he was the representative. Adam, however, does not appear to have been as docile a feudatory of the church as was anticipated. He was still animated by the old hunter spirit of his father, and found more invigorating exercise in the pursuit and excitement of the chase, and that of a wandering life, than in mere spiritual exercise and practice of hymnology.

From the time of his accession to the chieftainship until 1816 matters did not work smoothly between the resident missionaries and himself, but still at that time he evidently possessed too much influence among his fellow Griquas to allow the former to consider it prudent to break with him. In 1811, however, a native catechist, named Andries Waterboer, joined the mission in Griqua-town.

In 1816 old Cornelius Kok, seized once more with a fit of wandering and a desire to see the remainder of his family in his old age, left his farm at the Khamiesberg, whither he had retired and made his reappearance among the Griquas. On his return, we learn from the letter of the Rev. Dr. Philip that he wished to be recognised as chief of the place, but, he adds, his pretensions were rejected by the missionaries and the people.

From this we can trace the gradual development and assumption of power by their spiritual guides, and can see that the mission party by this time had sufficient influence to reject the father, although they were not then able to get rid of the son ; it required, as we shall discover, several years longer to upset the pretensions of the younger and more popular man.

We are told, however, as a preparation for that event, that during the long absence of his father, from his frequent contact with Bushmen, Koranas, and other predatory tribes, he had lost more or less the civilised habits of his relatives. In this retrogression he must nevertheless have been supported by a considerable portion of the old followers of his father, who still looked back with a lingering regard upon the feastings and fleshpots of former and more stirring times.

An instance has been given in the reminiscences of another tribe of an old reclaimed cannibal, whose mouth watered as he was conversing in his old age with a too tempting individual.

We therefore cannot be surprised, especially when we remember the teachings of colonial experience, how " school Kaffirs," girls and youths who have undergone years of training and been accustomed to European clothing, return to the more orthodox blanket and red-clay at the earliest opportunity, to find that these once still more degraded Griquas, forgetting the famine and fasting fretting under the tightening restraints imposed upon them by their teachers, the novelty of the new modes of life having worn off, should remember only the brighter spots of their former existence and long once more for the wild freedom they enjoyed under their old chief, and gradually become more and more averse to peaceable pursuits and a settled life.

The sympathies of their present chief Adam encouraged them, while he is charged by the friends of the mission party with winking at the marauding expeditions engaged in by his people, and even joining in them himself. As we know, however, that some of the charges then brought against him for a purpose were capable of contradiction, we are inclined to believe that this last was one of them.

We will now, to obtain a clearer view of the further development of the Griqua " nation," pursue our inquiry, by making an examination of two distinct periods of its growth, viz. the one commencing in 1813, the other in 1820.

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F. — The Griquas of 1813.

It is a fortunate circumstance for the purposes of the investigation which we are now pursuing that such a thoroughly reliable and observant traveller as Mr. Campbell visited the country at the period above indicated. His unimpeachable impartiality placed him above all local or tribal prejudices, and for this reason we are able to accept the evidence which he brings forward with unmixed and hearty satisfaction.

Having traversed two different lines of country during his progress to and his return from the Interior, his observations are spread over a wider range of surface than they otherwise would have been. To avail ourselves fully of the information he has thus afforded us, we will, for the sake of a clearer comprehension of it, arrange the items contained therein in two separate portions, viz. : —

a. — The Bushmen of the Period, and
b. — The Griquas of the Early Settlement.
a. — The Bushmen of the Period.

In commencing this subject, we will preface our remarks with the observation that the route taken by Mr. Campbell was through Graaff Reinet, across the Bushman country to Read's drift on the 'Gariep or Great river, thence to Lithako, the chief town of the Batlapin, via Griquatown, returning by the sources of the Malalarene, again passing Griquatown, to the ford on the 'Gariep at t'Keys or Kheis, after which he continued down the left side of this river valley until he arrived at Khamiesberg, from which point he once more visited Capetown.

The Bushmen met with in this journey of 1813 were found more thickly congregated along the valleys of the Malalarene and Kolong ('Hhou as they themselves called it), the 'Gij-'Gariep (the Yellow river or Vaal), and the 'Nu-'Gariep (or the Black or Upper Orange river), than in any other portion of the country through which Mr. Campbell travelled. Some were also found along the banks of the 'Gariep or Great river from the junction of the four rivers which composed it down to its mouth, where a tribe of these people, called 'Navi-i-I'kaa, were then living ; while at the same time Bushmen occupied in a scattered manner the entire territory as far to the eastward as the Tambukis, i.e. the Abatembu.

In passing through the Bushman country, after leaving Graaff-Reinet, although the journey occupied the space of twelve days, only a single family of Bushmen was met with, and that on the first day on which the travellers visited the territory. All the farmers along the border had Bushman servants, principally, however, women and children. On this journey they on several occasions came upon Bushman huts and other evidences of the existence of the inhabitants, and also saw on some of the eminences columns of smoke rising, which were employed by the Bushmen as signals, and which showed that although these people remained invisible, the movements of the caravan were being narrowly watched ; but during the whole time, so cautious were these wily hunters, that not one of them sufficiently exposed himself as to appear in sight.

Of those they met, a child that a woman carried had a string of berries, as a substitute for beads, interspersed with circular pieces of ostrich eggshell. The oldest of the party, who appeared at the head of them, was called Old Boy in their language. Each of them carried a jackal's tail on a stick to wipe the perspiration from their faces in hot weather. Each of them also carried a quiver of poisoned arrows.

These people looked upon the month of May as their harvest, for the ground being softened by rain, they could easily dig up roots not only for present use, but if they chose for future provision also. In the summer they were supplied with locusts, which they dried and pounded into powder, which served them as a substitute for flour.

The lions at that time were very numerous in that portion of the country, and it was asserted that these unfortunate people sometimes threw their children to the savage brutes in order to preserve themselves from their clutches, and it was from this circumstance, together with the slaughter committed amongst them by the colonial commandos, that the desire of these animals for the flesh of Bushmen had of late years greatly increased, until in 1813 it was said that these ferocious creatures killed more Bushmen than sheep.

A young Bushman who accompanied the travellers for a few days said that all their quarrels arose about their wives. He said they often quarrelled, and when any of their quarrels ended in killing one another it was considered a display of courage. They often attempted to take one another's wives, which he did not think was bad ; he said it was fine to take others' wives, but if any of the kraal were to take his wife whilst he was away, that would not be fine.

On arriving at the Brak river, this young Bushman, who evidently belonged to the painter tribes, left them suddenly without notice. It was afterwards discovered that the Bushman tribes of that portion of the country whence he came were always at variance with those in the mountains which he saw the travellers were approaching, and therefore dreading to visit any of these hostile kraals he had embraced a favourable opportunity of leaving them.

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Near the Brak river the waggons had several narrow escapes from being precipitated into the pitfalls made by the Bushmen for catching game. They were five or six feet deep, at the bottom of them a poisoned stake was fixed, while the mouth was carefully concealed by a slight covering of branches strewn over with grass.

Below Read's drift, but near the 'Nu 'Gariep, they came to a Bushman kraal under a chief named Bern. Another captain, a brother of his, had his kraals on the opposite side of the river. Bern was the paramount head, whose sway was acknowledged by the people of all these kraals. Some Koranas appear to have been intermingled with them. Pitfalls, one of which was seven or eight feet deep, were found on the banks of the river.

On crossing to the other side, a short distance from the drift, another Bushman kraal was met with, the people of which were employed by one of the Griqua captains to watch his cattle, for which service they were allowed to use the milk of the cows ; and it is stated Bushmen were generally found to be faithful herdsmen. Their huts were similar to those seen on the south side of the river, low, shaped like an oven, and covered with mats made of rushes.

Leaving Griquatown for Lithako, between the former place and Ongeluk Fontein a number of Bushman pitfalls were again passed. Ongeluk Fontein, or the Fountain of Misfortune, obtained its name from an accident which occurred there whilst a hunting party of Griquas was resting under a camel-thorn tree standing by it, the gun of one of them going off whilst he was in the act of sharpening his flint, and shooting his neighbour. In 1813 a small kraal of fugitive Bachoana were found to have located themselves there. In the intervening country beyond T'Goaypa or Blinkklip, and towards Kuruman, no other inhabitants were found than kraals of Bushmen and Koranas thinly and indiscriminately scattered throughout it.

On the return journey, after leaving Malapeetze many Bushmen were still found along the banks of the Malalarene river. Crossing into this valley, the travellers approached a Bushman kraal. Seeing strangers approaching, the Bushmen supposed they were enemies coming to attack them ; they therefore hastily turned out and drew up in battle array. The chief, whose name was 'Ma'ko-on, by brandishing his bow and jumping into the air endeavoured to intimidate them.

The guides, however, made signs that they were friends, and on a nearer approach the Bushmen were so far convinced of it that they laid aside their bows and poisoned arrows, although the women still concealed themselves in their huts ; but, after a time, seeing some tobacco distributed among the men, they came out from their concealment. 'Ma'ko-on's two wives, who were only about four feet in height and not in the least deformed, had each a very small baby tied to her back. They had never seen white people before, neither had they heard of Klaarwater or the missionaries.

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The faces of these people were frightfully daubed with red paint, put on apparently with a view to terrify those who were their enemies. This 'Ma'ko-on, although besides his bows and arrows he did not seem to possess anything else than the skin cloak which covered him, was evidently a clever man. He was the chief captain of all the Malalarene clans. He said that he had many people towards the east, that they were peaceable Bushmen, as was his father and his grandfather before him ; they never stole, he continued, anything from their neighbours, and ended by saying " We have plenty of game and water."

A number of Bushman pitfalls were found in different parts of this valley. Proceeding down it several Bushmen were met with, but although they were pleased with the presents of meat which were made to them, while cutting it they held their bows and poisoned arrows in their hands, as if jealous of their safety among such strange visitors as they had never seen in their part of the world before.

The journey of Mr. Campbell along the valley of this river has a very important bearing upon the subject of our investigation, as it firmly establishes the fact that even up to 1813 the Bushmen were the sole proprietors of this tract of country, and that land claims had not been extended so far by the mission party of Griquatown. This fact becomes more significant when we ascertain that Adam Kok, the Griqua chief, accompanied the exploring expedition, and it is certain that he never once advanced such an idea, for we may feel convinced that had he done so, the observant Mr. Campbell would certainly have made a note of it.

No other people than Bushmen were then inhabiting the wonderful 'Kaap, or Campbell Rand as it was afterwards called, standing out for many miles on either hand as far as the eye could reach like a great sea-cliff, diversified with precipitous gorges and bold, abrupt, projecting bluffs, a very paradise for a race of cave dwellers. Abundance of game swarmed over the river plains, innumerable hippopotami peopled the reedy banks and the deep waters of the Vaal, springs of crystal water trickled through the crevices of the rocks, which abounded more with honey than almost any other portion of South Africa. The writer, in the winter of 1872, counted twelve or fourteen rock hives swarming with bees in a distance of less than a hundred yards. These were in the fissures of some overhanging rocks, while the indefatigable workers made the air resound with their busy humming.

With regard to these, Mr. Campbell informs us that the Bushmen marked the hives in the rocks, as farmers marked their sheep, and should they find on their regular visits that any hive had been robbed, they were sure to carry off the first sheep or cow they met. They said that the Koranas, Batlapin, and Barolong had cows and sheep to live upon the grass of the land, that they had none, wherefore they had a right to the bees that lived only on the flowers. Their right in this respect was seldom invaded, as all found it to their interest to let the Bushmen obtain the honey and then to purchase it of them.

It appears evident that at this time there were no outstations of either Griquas, Koranas, or fugitive Batlapin, owing allegiance to the Griquatown government in any portion of this country between the 'Gij 'Gariep and the great escarpment of the 'Kaap, itself a worthy monument to mark the ancient coast line of the great lacustrine region of South Africa in a remote period of geological time.

Shortly after this they arrived at the first Griqua village which was attached to Klaarwater, and which had lately been called Campbell. There were still some of the original Bushmen living there. These lived by themselves on the east side. Four different languages were spoken at the village, Dutch, Korana, Sechuana, and Bushman. The Bachoana were also living separate, farther to the eastward than the Bushmen. They were only staying temporarily as servants.

In the neighbourhood of Campbell in 1813 there was additional evidence which showed how recent was the claim to territorial rights and exclusive jurisdiction on the part of the Griquas over any extent of country except a small tract immediately surrounding the station at Griquatown itself, and perhaps Campbell. At the time of this visit there was living on the banks of the Vaal, nearly opposite to the Campbell kloof, an independent kraal of Koranas. The kraal consisted of sixty or seventy persons ; they were not, however, confined to any particular spot, but moved up and down the river as provision for their cattle was plentiful or scarce.

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So little had the Griquas penetrated to the eastward that it was only a short time before the arrival of Mr. Campbell that they had discovered the existence of the 'Gumaap or Great Riet river and the Upper Orange or 'Nu 'Gariep. In 1813 Bushmen were still occupying the broken country below the junction of the Orange and Vaal, between the river and the great rand. A Bushman and his wife and his brother's wife came to visit the travellers while they were encamped there. As this is the part of the range which the clan under Oude Timmerman occupied, these people were in all probability a portion of them, if not the old captain himself, as he must then have been at least forty years of age.

That these Bushmen were susceptible of the feelings of jealousy was illustrated by a tragical incident which took place amongst some of them about this time. A Bushman had a dispute with his brother as to which of them should obtain a certain woman for wife, to whom both were equally attached. His brother succeeded in obtaining her, but afterwards in passing the hut in which the couple lay fast asleep, the unsuccessful suitor strung his bow and shot his brother through the heart with a poisoned arrow.

Besides the Bushmen already mentioned, Mr. Campbell learned that there was another very large kraal of them, a day and a half's journey higher up the 'Gij 'Gariep than its junction with the Kolong. These would therefore be living somewhere in the broken country about Klip Drift and the present Pniel mission station, while the numerous chippings which were discovered in that part of the country in 1874 by the writer prove how thickly they must have inhabited it before the stronger races intruded upon them.

In his return journey to Capetown Mr. Campbell traversed the country to the Langeberg, the south-eastern boundary of the Kalahari. Here they were met by some Bushmen under their chief named Owl. On clearing the mountains they entered a desert of sand, which they were more than a day in crossing, when they came to the Great river.

Departing from the ford, which the travellers crossed about the 26th of August, they came to some Koranas who had just arrived at that spot ; the women were busily employed erecting their huts. No other inhabitants were met until the end of the second day, when they arrived at two other Korana kraals containing about one hundred and fifty people. They possessed many hundred oxen, cows, sheep, and goats. They neither sowed nor planted, but depended entirely on their cattle for subsistence. They appeared to be a dull, gloomy, indifferent people.

Again the expedition travelled four days without meeting any inhabitants, when they arrived at another Korana kraal, belonging to Hans Human, a Bastaard Hottentot. It contained six huts and about forty inhabitants, who possessed many cattle and had plenty of milk. They seemed to have nothing to do but like their dogs to lie upon the grass, enjoying the sunshine until the next meal.

About three days' travelling from this place brought them to a kraal of people under the command of Cornelius Kok the younger, son of old Cornelius, who was then living at Silver Fontein. The majority of the inhabitants called themselves Orlams ; there were some there also who had forsaken Griqualand quietly to enjoy a plurality of wives and to live in every other respect without restraint. A number of them spoke the Dutch language. They were composed of Orlams 215, Koranas 180, and about thirty Bushmen, making a total of four hundred and twenty-five.

Such then was the independent clan which at this time acknowledged the chieftainship of the younger Cornelius Kok, whose authority was in after years called in question by Waterboer and his supporters, who declared that he had never been the head of any people at all, much less of an independent clan, until Waterboer himself, in the plenitude of his power, had graciously bestowed the office of a provisional fieldcomet upon him. This point, however, will be further explained under the heading of Griqua chiefs.

At this time Cornelius, being like his father a great hunter, had just returned with a large party of his people from a hunting expedition against the elephants on the other side of the river. They had journeyed five or six days to the northward without finding a single fountain, when like the Batlapin under similar circumstances they lived without water except that obtained from the wild melons found scattered everywhere over the ground, which after being roasted on the fire yielded a good supply. These Griquas stated that between their kraal and the Colony to the south there were scattered Bushmen living throughout the country.

Proceeding onwards, the travellers met a little below the Falls a party of Bushmen, who captured all their oxen while grazing, wounding at the same time one of the herdsmen with a poisoned arrow. An armed party started in pursuit, with the intention of endeavouring to get between them and the Great river, and thus to take them by surprise. Some of the people imagined that these marauders had been watching the motions of the travelling party the whole way down the river, and had chosen to make their attack at that place as the farthest from assistance ; others that the Bushmen who had made this attack were in connexion with Africaander, the plundering chief who was the terror of that part of the country.

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It appears that the herds had driven the cattle to the Great river, a distance of twenty miles, to drink. Near the river they observed four Bushmen at a distance, lurking in the bushes. On leaving the river the Bushmen followed them, and as it grew dark they managed to take aim at the tallest of the party in charge of the cattle. Finding himself wounded, he ran to one of his companions, and desired him to pull out the arrow. He did so, but two pieces remained in the wound, which he had the fortitude to pick out with a native awl, while another young Hottentot kept off the Bushmen with his musket, which he fired towards the place whence he thought the arrow proceeded.

They then left the oxen that they might help their wounded companion to the waggons, where he died in great agony. The Bushmen, alarmed at the few well-directed shots which had been fired at them by the Hottentot, fled also in an opposite direction, little dreaming that the oxen had been abandoned. They were found the next day quietly grazing near the spot where the catastrophe had taken place, by the armed party sent in quest of them.

It was afterwards discovered that the Bushmen were numerous in this neighbourhood, and that those who had occasioned the mischief had followed the travelling party from the Falls, watching for an opportunity to plunder. They were in alliance with Africaander, giving him a share of whatever booty they captured, especially if they found powder.

Two days after this occurrence the travellers arrived at Pella, situated in a wild nook of the Kaabas mountains, about three or four miles from the Great river. On the 23rd of September the travellers left Pella, and arrived on the 26th at Silver Fontein, the residence of old Cornelius Kok. Here Mr. and Mrs. Sass, a missionary and his wife, were staying. All the people lived in huts made of rush mats, the same as the ordinary Hottentot houses, only those belonging to Cornelius Kok and Mr. Sass were much larger than the others. This station was only a temporary one, the missionaries having, as we have seen, previously resided at Warm Bath, on the other side of the Great river, but had been driven thence by the freebooter Africaander.

By thus following Mr. Campbell through his journey, we have discovered several important facts connected with Griqua history in the year 1813. We find that up to that time a very considerable portion of the country shortly afterwards called Griqualand was still in the possession of the true aborigines, and that in some localities they were congregated together in no insignificant numbers, living a life of freedom under their own independent chiefs ; and this in the so-called " unoccupied country " taken possession of for the benefit of the " poor Griquas."

We find also that the Griquas themselves formed distinct clans under chiefs, some of whom certainly did not acknowledge any allegiance to the governing power centred in Griquatown. It is this centre, now that we know the condition of the territory surrounding it, and the very contracted influence which it at that time exercised, to which we will direct our attention ; and which thus brings us to the next step in our inquiry.


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THE GRIQUAS OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT

It was at the time of Mr. Campbell's first visit that the people of Klaarwater determined to call themselves Griquas, instead of Bastaards. It was also during this visit, and at Mr. Campbell's earnest recommendation, that they agreed to adopt certain fixed laws for the protection of life and property, and that judges or magistrates should be chosen to put them in execution. He commended them for relinquishing a wandering life, and assured them that the longer they remained at Klaarwater the more they and their children would be attached to the spot and be desirous of promoting its prosperity.

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Griqualand West then consisted of Griquatown and two principal outposts, Campbell and Hardcastle, together with a few minor kraals. The western limit of the new territory was then fixed at the present Langeberg, which the visitors called Vansittart mountains ; there is no mention of any eastern boundary.

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In those days it is evident that these few hundred newly-arrived Griquas had not set up any claim to an extent of territory equal to a respectable kingdom, nor had they commenced dictating terms of occupation to those who were older occupants of the soil than themselves. They were something in the position of the Boers in Namaqualand whose case we have just noticed ; first their modest requirements were merely to sit still and sow a little corn, then to build a mill, ending however in a dictatorial demand for the entire country.

The morality of the affair, whether a large territory was seized for the benefit of a few kraals of Griquas, or a farm unjustly appropriated for the sole use of a farmer and his family, is exactly the same. If we unhesitatingly condemn the Boer for his unprincipled conduct in dispossessing a kraal of Hottentots, how can we heap praise upon the Griquas and their supporters, who in an equally unjustifiable manner despoiled a considerable number of independent clans of the aborigines of their ancient territorial possessions ?

At the commencement they merely took possession of the localities they positively occupied, they felt that others had still some right to occupy the intervening tracts of country. It was only as they began to feel the strength which their superior weapons gave them, that more ambitious ideas dawned upon the minds of the Griquatown authorities, and they began to lord it over the territories and persons of their weaker neighbours.

On the present occasion it was decided that their two captains or chiefs, Barends and Adam Kok, should continue to act as commanders in affairs requiring the public safety against foreign attacks.

It was also resolved for the future that wilful murder should be in every case punished by the death of the murderer ; that housebreaking should be punished by public whipping, for the second offence whipping and hard labour ; that stealing a bull, ox, cow, horse, sheep, or goat should be punished by restoring double, or more, as should be decided by the court, for a second similar offence whipping and restoring double ; for stealing from a garden either whipping or a term of labour for the person in whose garden the robbery was committed ; for allowing cattle to feed near growing com, or allowing them to trespass therein, the proprietor of the cattle to pay double the loss sustained ; that if a Bushman, Korana, or any stranger should be murdered, the murderer should receive the same punishment as for murdering a Griqua ; that any going upon commando for plunder should be punished by a term of labour, and the property taken should be restored to its owners ; that if a Bushman, Korana, or other stranger should commit murder, theft, or any other crime, within the limits of the Griqua country, the punishment should be the same as if he had been a Griqua ; and that no person should be permitted to inflict personal chastisement upon another, but should submit his case to the court.

The eleventh and twelfth of the laws enacted were to prevent bribery in the administration of justice, the thirteenth ordered the delivering up of all offenders fleeing from justice in the Colony, and the fourteenth provided that any person endeavouring to obstruct the course of justice should be punished as the court should deem proper.

It was further resolved that nine magistrates should be chosen to act as judges at Griquatown, and one at each of the two principal outposts ; but all serious cases were to be remitted to the court at Griquatown ; that the two captains, Barends and Kok, with the missionaries, Messrs. Anderson and Janz, should form a court of appeal ; and that the limits of the country should be marked out in the course of one month, and magistrates be chosen.

At this time, whilst they were enacting wise laws and deciding about marking out the boundaries of their new kingdom, the entire number of the " Griqua nation " consisted of 291 men, 399 women, 310 boys, and 266 girls, or 1,266 all told, while of the neighbouring Koranas about 1,341 had entered into an alliance with the Griquas for the sake of mutual protection. The church, or Christian society, at the same time consisted of twenty-six men and sixteen women.

All the endeavours of the missionaries to persuade these people to fix upon a permanent place of abode were in vain till they gained over to their sentiments the two captains and a few of the principal men. During his stay among the Griquas Mr. Campbell frequently urged them to build better houses for themselves, as calculated to wean them more effectually from a wandering life, to which they still felt a propensity ; and as an ox could carry on its back any of the houses in which most of them then lived, they were encouraged by this facility of removing often to take long and needless journeys with their cattle.

The natives of warm climates have a remarkable attachment to the manners and customs of their forefathers. The Chinese, Hindoos, and many others dress and build their houses in the very way their progenitors did two thousand years ago. In South Africa it is the same. If you see only one Batlapin, Korana, or Bushman house, you see an exact model of every house belonging to that particular nation.

Upon leaving Griquatown Mr. Campbell determined to travel along the course of the Great river to Namaqualand. Along this route we have already followed him. It was. a journey which up to that time no European traveller had ever accomplished, and, as we have before said, it was well for the subject of our enquiry that one so observant as this zealous and single-minded missionary succeeded in carrying out what was then deemed so hazardous an undertaking.

At Hardcastle, which at that time was occupied by the special partizans of the captain or chief Barend Barends, the new laws of Griqualand were read to the people and to those of one or two Korana kraals in the neighbourhood, and the names of those were entered who gave in their adhesion to them.

It was for this reason that Cornelius Kok the younger, who was not present at the promulgation of the Griqualand laws and in fact was not a party to them, he being acknowledged as an independent chief of his own clan at the time, repudiated in after years the authority which the Griquatown government determined to assert over him and his people, whether they desired it or not. Besides Hardcastle and the two Korana kraals mentioned, there was still another kraal belonging to the same people in a valley near the foot of Paardeberg (the Horse mountain), and at six hours' waggon travelling from this place, or about fifteen miles, there was another small Griqua village, where Nicholas Barends, of Africaander renown, the brother of the captain, then resided.

From the foregoing facts we learn that not only were Cornelius the younger and his clan still far removed from the new Griqua centre, but the Barendses also, with their special following of Bastaards, were living in an isolated position to the westward, and it was evident that no cordial fusion had taken place between them and the growing power under purely missionary control.

Having arrived at this stage, we can now proceed with advantage to the next portion of our investigation.

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G. — The Griquas of 1820 under the Rule of the Chief Waterboer.

From what has already been advanced, we feel justified in drawing the following positive conclusions, viz. —

I. That the Griquas were a mixed race, having almost the same manners as the Bastaards, speaking the same language, and intermarrying with them ; that the characteristics of Hottentots predominated in the former, and those of the Dutch in the latter ; that for what African blood the Bastaards have they are indebted entirely to the natives of the Cape Colony, and that the Griquas trace theirs to the same source, notably to the old Grigriquas, but in later days in part to the Hottentot tribes of the Namaquas and Koranas.

2. That from the very commencement they were divided into two distinct communities, one composed chiefly of the Bastaard element, adhering to the fortunes and leadership of the Barendses, the other composed of a more unmixed native population congregating around the Koks as their chosen centre ; that these latter became again subdivided into what might be termed the missionary party of Griquatown, and that portion which followed old Cornelius in his retirement, and then, as he became weakened by age and increasing infirmity, followed the guidance of his younger son, afterwards called the chief of Campbell. This section of the Griqua people has not been inappropriately styled " the family clan of the Koks."

We have already noticed that on the departure of old Cornelius, the people of the mission station elected, upon the recommendation of the resident missionaries, his eldest son Adam to the office of chieftain in his father's stead ; that after the accession of Adam, the missionaries became dissatisfied with the selection they had made, that disagreements arose between them, and that in 1816, although they had influence enough to reject the father, the elder Cornelius, upon his return to the settlement, they were not able to displace the son, owing to his continued popularity among the great mass of the people. When the old man was repulsed at Griquatown, he retired to Campbell and settled down there, when he was joined by his sons Cornelius and Abraham and other members of his family.

Whilst residing in the west he was spoken of by every one in the highest terms of praise, his house and farm became a halting place for the missionaries to and from the Interior, where they received counsel, comfort, and assistance, and when driven out from their more advanced stations by gangs of ferocious desperadoes, his house became their ark of refuge and their place of asylum ; but with the missionary authorities of Griquatown the case was different.

There both he and his family fell into disfavour, for they were stumbling blocks in the way of carrying out pet schemes that were cherished. The Koks possessed too much independence of spirit to be used simply as obedient tools in the hands of their would-be spiritual rulers, therefore every little failing, every little bagatelle was immediately seized hold of, exaggerated, and multiplied as a witness against them, causing irreconcilable estrangements and, as a natural consequence, a feeling of lasting and deep hostility. Thus it was that in 1819 affairs had so ripened that a coup d'etat in the interest of missionary influence was possible.

By that time the differences between the chief and his spiritual masters had reached a crisis. A useful man in a long-tried catechist named Andries Waterboer had considerably strengthened their hands, while the recalcitrant chief Adam had become a very Saul, who had turned his back upon the prophets.

He was now threatened with deposition ; but such a revolutionary measure, even if carried out by ruling missionaries and their converts, would nevertheless have sounded to outsiders something like a scandal ; he was therefore induced to go through the farce of an abdication. He then finally abandoned Griquatown, with, so we are informed by the friends of the coming man, the more turbulent of his followers to embrace a life of rapine and plunder. This last charge is another of those exaggerated misstatements which we shall find were unjustly made against the irreligious Adam, and was evidently intended to serve as a palliation for the ecclesiastical severity which had been doled out to him.

After his departure those left behind were the more settled portion, many of them being of mixed race, who adhered to the mission of Griquatown. The missionaries, following the example of some of the old Theocracies in the amusement of making and unmaking kings, induced this portion to elect another to the now vacant seat of their dethroned chief. A great meeting was held for that purpose about the end of 1819, and, as we are informed by the dominant party at Griquatown, the unanimous choice fell upon Andries Waterboer.

Subsequent events however prove that this was not the unanimous choice of all the Griquas, for a considerable number of their hearts were with the departing Adam, and many, as we shall see, " rebelled," as it was termed, against the newly-exalted Waterboer, and were sufficiently strong, though subsequently defeated, to attack him in his own capital. These Griquas, who denied the authority of Waterboer and sympathised with Adam Kok and Barend Barends, at whom the blow was struck equally with the former, although termed " rebels " in Griquatown, emphatically styled themselves " the Patriots," and left Waterboer to rule Griquatown with his party of adherents.

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The conditions under which the new chief assumed his limited sovereignty are clearly explained in his own letter to the Rev. P. Wright, dated in 1832, in which he states that the chieftainship of Adam Kok was not from hereditary right but from the choice of the people and the recommendation of his appointment by Mr. Anderson to the colonial government. " I consider," he adds, " the chief of the Griquas responsible to the people and the London Missionary Society."

In this assumed power lies the whole gist of the matter. " Responsible," he continues, " in every thing that has relation to the well-being of the missions and the promotion of religion and morals among the people." With regard to his own right to the chieftainship he explains that, " owing to Adam Kok abandoning Griquatown, on going to the Black river " ('Nu 'Gariep), " I was chosen chief in 1820 by the people in his stead. This choice was recommended by the missionaries, and approved of by the Directors of the London Missionary Society."

In the face of this it seems absurd to maintain that the chief of the politico-religious government of Griquatown, which this Society sought to set up, could be, or was ever intended to be, an independent chief. The ruling missionaries were to be independent, but the chief himself was to be nothing more than the representative of their power and a mere puppet in their hands. Their first selection, Adam, had proved restive. In the present instance, Waterboer's previous missionary training and proclivities evidently marked him as a man fit to carry out the missionary Utopian idea of laying the foundation, under their own special priestly guidance, of a model kingdom of " regenerated natives."

The choice they made, in Waterboer's case, appears to have been a judicious one, as he proved himself possessed of energy and a certain talent for governing the opposing elements by which the mission of Griquatown was surrounded ; but as he himself acknowledges that he owed fealty to his spiritual superiors, and as it is an admitted fact that at that time their influence was brought to bear upon all matters, not only of church but of state also, they cannot be held blameless for the great acquisitions of territory that were made during this period, without the slightest reference to the existing rights of others, until the territory thus claimed had become expanded to almost inordinate bounds, not to meet the requirements of the Griqua nation, for they, when most numerous, would not have exceeded the population of many an English market town, but apparently to gratify the lust of conquest and the pride of empire on a small scale.

Waterboer's first exercise of authority was to subdue the still unconquered Bushmen of the territory, and to suppress brigandage. We remember it was stated by the missionary friends of the Griquas that they had been fortunate enough to obtain an unoccupied piece of country to settle down in with their protégés.

It has been already proved that this was entirely a misconception on their part ; and some eighteen or twenty years after their settlement Mr. Thompson, who rode through the country between Campbell and Griquatown, says of this intervening bush-covered tract : " These coverts enable the Bushmen to lurk here, in spite of all the efforts of the Griquas to root them out. They are a great annoyance to the latter, as well as to the other pastoral tribes in their vicinity, and they are consequently pursued by them, equally as by the Boers, with the utmost animosity."

Thus we find, even after such a lapse of time, the true owners of the so-called unoccupied country were still numerous and strong enough to resent the intrusion and to keep up a struggle for their independence. Even when Mr. Thompson arrived at Griquatown, Waterboer was away on a commando against these Bushmen. And not long before, he and his followers had been engaged in a war against these same unhappy outcasts. It appears that a Bushman captain named the Owl had maintained peace with the Griquas for twenty years after their first settlement in the country, but finding that his hunting grounds were daily becoming more curtailed, he determined to be no longer controlled by them but to make war upon his enemies as he chose.

He had therefore attacked a Korana kraal in alliance with the Griquas, and carried off some of their cattle. The Koranas complained to their Griqua patrons, and Captain Waterboer went out with his men, surprised Owl and his kraal, forced him to make restitution, and fined him a tribute of beads. He, however, speedily made another foray upon the Koranas, and not only carried off some of their cattle, but also some belonging to the dominating Griquas. This conduct was considered the height of insolence and ingratitude ; and Waterboer again went forth with his band and surrounded the robber in his den.

Two messengers (tame Bushmen) were sent to require him to surrender at discretion, for his retreat was surrounded by men with muskets and not a soul could possibly escape. But old Owl like so many of his race, finding himself at bay, turned a deaf ear to all overtures, and resolved to fight it out manfully, the envoys themselves being scarcely spared in his wrath.

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The unequal conflict commenced, poisoned arrows against powder and ball, but it was not until eight of his followers had fallen and he himself had been mortally wounded that the old chief would permit his sons to surrender. Seventy men, women, and children were found in the kraal, and carried prisoners to Griquatown, where the sons having expressed contrition and promised to remain peaceable for the future, were allowed to depart with their people. To win their confidence and friendship Mr. Melvill made them a parting present of some goats. This kindness was not misplaced, for Mr. Melvill informed the traveller Thompson that instead of seeking to avenge the death of their father, they had ever since remained on friendly terms with the pastoral tribes around them.

Up to this point it would seem that with the exception of persuading their Griqua followers to settle down and adopt a certain amount and style of European clothing, with all the missionary zeal which had been expended not much genuine advance had been made among the mass of the people. For this the missionaries are not to be blamed, for all who have studied the idiosyncrasy of the native character must have noticed that their determined conservatism and the tenacity with which they cling to old forms and habits present gigantic obstacles to anything like rapidity of progress. Numberless instances could be cited in proof of this.

A marked one is doubtless still fresh in the remembrance of some, where a zealous missionary, following the teachings of his own particular persuasion, strove by every means in his power to make religion attractive to the native eye with crosses, embroidered cloth, burning candles, processions, processional banners and processional hymns, matins, vespers, and midnight services. At one of the last, amid grand ceremonial, they were to attend the departure of the old and the birth of the coming year, doles of mealies were to be dispensed to all the invited worshippers, but savoury meats were forgotten.

The eventful night arrived, the high festival was celebrated, and the multitude departed But in the early morning no cheery cock announced the day and aroused the teacher to his accustomed matins ; a number of the departing devotees, believing the lesson they had been taught that man could not live on bread (mealies) alone, had stripped his well-stocked hen-roosts, and thus secured the necessary addition to their food !

It was not therefore that the missionaries to the Griquas were to be blamed for want of success ; but it is the mistaken system which they have ever adopted that has proved to be pernicious and useless in producing any permanent results for good. Notwithstanding therefore the conversions which they professed to have brought about, they felt there was a considerable amount of insecurity in the claims they had put forth.

To give assurance therefore to a more rapid spread of " the Word " in the future, it was determined to enforce argument with a little application of physical force, after the manner of the sword of the Prophet. Of course this was to be done through the agency of their new chief ; it was therefore determined shortly after he was raised to office as far as possible to suppress the almost universal custom of brigandage.

There appears to have been a lull in this practice during the presence of the elder Kok. Under the independent rule of this great hunter, amid the abundance of game, there was always a sufficiency of food among the people ; but the old inveterate habit had evidently broken out again under his son Adam. Possibly it had never been entirely suppressed, as we are informed by Livingstone that the old Griquas had as little scruple about robbing farmers of cattle as the Kaffirs themselves.

However that may be, it was now declared that under the new regime no marauding should be allowed. Notwithstanding these decisive orders, we learn from the authority of Dr. Livingstone that some of Waterboer's principal men disregarded the injunction and plundered some Korana villages. He seized six of the ringleaders, summoned his council, and tried, condemned, and publicly executed them all. This produced an insurrection, and the insurgents twice attacked Griquatown.

According to Jan Pienaar, who gave evidence before the court of arbitration at Bloemhof, those engaged on these occasions against Waterboer were that portion of the Griquas calling themselves " the Patriots," together with Jan Bloem the younger, Jan Kockman, Hendrik Hendriks, Kora, and all the Koranas with the exception of Jan Taaibosch and Gert Links. They all " shot at Andries Waterboer," he said, " but he conquered all those who rebelled against him." By such means as these he strove to bring under his own rule not only those whom he punished as marauders, but those who needed his protection, and thus he absorbed into his own tribe many wandering hordes of Koranas and Bushmen, besides Bachoana.

We now approach the period when an impetus was given to the development of the power of the Griquas until the successful Waterboer raised it to the highest pinnacle which it ever attained, but it as rapidly collapsed as soon as his personal influence ceased to be exerted upon it. As early as 1822 strange reports had reached the Griquas about hordes of invading tribes. It was said that they consisted partly of white men with long hair and beards, led on by a giantess with one eye in her forehead. At first they were looked upon as fables by the missionaries, but it was soon discovered that these supposed fables had emanated from a serious foundation.

In 1823 intelligence was brought to the mission that the Mantatees, or Ma-Ntatis, were advancing, plundering and slaughtering in every direction. They were at that time pressing upon the great place of the Batlapin, near Kuruman. It was said that they had come from the south, from the neighbourhood of the Likwa or Upper Vaal, that they had conquered or driven before them numerous tribes of the Bakuena nation, had invaded the territory of the Barolong, and now, in its turn, threatened that of the Batlapin.

Mothibi, the paramount chief of these last, had appealed, in the name of the other chiefs of his tribe, to the missionary at Kuruman for advice, when it was decided that as the Bachoana in that quarter were entirely unable to withstand so powerful and destructive an enemy, help should be immediately asked for from the Griqua chiefs.

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It was fortunately at this very juncture that Mr. Thompson was on his visit to Griquatown. In passing Campbell he had an interview with the Griqua chiefs then staying there, brooding over their wrongs in a kind of sullen isolation. Their principal ground of complaint against Mr. Melvill was his making a chief of Andries Waterboer, and wishing through him to rule them, the real hereditary chiefs. This they considered as a sort of usurpation or infringement of their privileges not to be tolerated, and to which they resolved not to submit. He endeavoured as much as possible to allay the irritation which they expressed at the treatment they had received, and ultimately persuaded Adam and Cornelius Kok to accompany him to Griquatown, in the hope that some accommodation might be effected between the opposing parties ; and thus it was that, at this important crisis, the otherwise rival chiefs had already assembled in Griquatown when the startling intelligence was made known to them.

On Mr. Moffat's arrival to solicit assistance from the Griquas, he informed them that fugitives who had escaped from places that had been attacked by the invading tribes, described them as an immense army of plunderers led by several chiefs, consisting of people of various complexions, the majority black and almost naked, others a yellow or Hottentot colour, and some perfectly white, with long hair and beards. Their weapons were said to be clubs and javelins, and a short crooked instrument like a scimitar. They were considered almost irresistible from their numbers and warlike ferocity. They were accompanied by their wives and children, and finally they were confidently affirmed to be cannibals.

A meeting of the Griqua chiefs was at once held, including the disaffected captains. Messrs. Moffat and Thompson were also admitted, and after long and serious deliberation the Griquas came to the resolution of mustering their forces with all speed, and of marching towards Kuruman to join the Batlapin in repelling the invaders. Messengers were instantly dispatched to all their settlements to call out men and arms ; and Mr. Thompson states that he was pleased to see that all parties cooperated cordially and unanimously in these energetic measures, and that the urgency of a great common danger dissipated, at least for a time, their internal broils and jealousies.

The Griqua chiefs calculated they could muster about two hundred men, mounted and armed with muskets, and had sufficient time been allowed, they could have brought into the field double that number. They promised to be in Kuruman in ten days ; and to prevent Mothibi and his people from retreating until the Griquas could arrive, it was arranged that Messrs. Moffat and Thompson should return immediately to Kuruman to encourage them with their presence.

The commando was promptly assembled, and within the specified period marched in considerable force to the assistance of the Batlapin and Kuruman mission station. On their arrival at their destination, Waterboer, at the recommendation of his friends was chosen Commandant-General. The superiority of the weapons in their possession over the inferior ones used by the enemy proved irresistible, and the formidable horde of marauding savages was driven back with considerable loss. The effect of this staggering blow upon these swarming hordes, flushed as they had been by recent successes, was fatal to them ; and the divisions which followed their defeat led to their final dispersion.

The prominent position in which Waterboer was placed at the time of this achievement laid the foundation of his fame, and made his name more widely known than any other occurrence in his long rule of thirty years. The prestige afforded by this victory added much to his authority throughout the surrounding country, and increased very considerably the extent of territory over which he and his supporters claimed jurisdiction, while those Griquas who from the first refused to acknowledge his authority as paramount chief were now broadly termed rebels by him and his admirers.

The portion of the Griquas who thus opposed him were those who, as we have seen, represented the old Griqua element, the followers or descendants of the earliest retainers of the great hunter Cornelius Kok. The chief support of Waterboer was the later Bastaard portion of the community, the members of which had migrated from the Colony to the mission-grounds after the establishment of Griquatown, and who came for the express purpose of settling and were as a natural consequence under missionary authority.

Those of the former class, looking back to the marauding expeditions of their earlier days and the more lenient rule of the Koks, were naturally disgusted at the tight rein with which Waterboer, under the inspiration of his missionary friends, expressed his intention of governing them. Their jealousy was further aroused by his apparent connection with the colonial government.

Another cause of dissension and offence was the ever extending absorption of new territory. From time to time boundary lines were marked out, presumably on similar authority to that which first awarded Klaarwater for mission purposes, and all those who came within these self-constituted limits were treated, whether they wished it or not, as the subjects of the missionary chief Waterboer.

It was this despotic assumption of authority to which the old Griqua party, the Patriots, objected ; and though their chief, under the pressure of the influence of Griquatown, had gone through the farce of a forced abdication, this section of the Griquas refused to throw off their allegiance to him, a chief, they did not forget, under whose father and grandfather they and their fathers had lived.

After having fallen under missionary displeasure, it was soon evident that not only he himself was a marked man, but all those who continued faithful to his leadership, or who from time to time subsequently joined him ; all these came immediately under the same potent ban, and were known to their more docile countrymen by the mild appellation of lawless banditti, being classed at once, as we have before pointed out, with the Bergenaars or robbers living in the mountains.

For a number of years a harassing kind of guerilla warfare, or a long continued series of cattle-raids, was carried on between these Griquas, the Batlapin, and the Bergenaars until, on account of the losses they had sustained, the Batlapin were driven from Kuruman. This occurred in 1828, when Mr. J. Hughes was missionary there. Waterboer was again called to the succour of the Batlapin.

He visited Kuruman, and advised the people to remove to a more convenient locality. Acting upon this suggestion, they retreated in two divisions, one under Mothibi, who went to the south-east and settled along the banks of the Kolong or Hart and the Vaal, near the junction of the two rivers, the portion of the Bushman territory visited by Campbell in 1813, where they and their descendants remained until Griqualand West was made over to the British Authorities ; the other division, under Mahura, migrated in a northerly direction, and settled eventually at the old Barolong station of Taung (the place of the Lion), which had afterwards been occupied for a considerable time by a clan of Toovenaars under one of the Taaibosches, on the Malalarene or Upper Hart river.

These people were to be under a sort of Griqua protectorate, and it was thus that Waterboer claimed as his feudatories a large section of the tribe of the Batlapin.

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We are assured by the friends of Waterboer that all the warlike expeditions in which he engaged were undertaken solely for the purpose of suppressing crime and punishing evil doers. It is certain that he never involved himself, like every other native chief of his time, in a series of expeditions for the express purpose of augmenting his herds of cattle, and thus at the close of each successful campaign we find him with more numerous subjects and a wider extent of territory.

The Mantatee hordes, after their repulse at Lithako, spread themselves over the country of the Barolong and ravaged it from one end to the other. One of the divisions, composed principally of Bataung, the people of the Lion, under Molitzane, remained in it for more than twelve months, until he attacked the great place of the Barolong chief Sihunel, and not only drove out the terrified inhabitants, looting and burning down the town, but entirely destroyed the neighbouring mission station of the Maquassie. Sihunel in his distress sent messengers imploring aid from Waterboer.

A commando was raised by Waterboer, assisted by Cornelius Kok, the chief of Campbell. In crossing the great plains considerable time was lost in hunting, and when they at last arrived in the neighbourhood of the fugitive Barolong all trace of the enemy had disappeared.

For some unexplained reason a most unwarrantable charge was brought against Sihunel, and he was accused of pillaging and destroying his own town, together with the Wesleyan mission station attached to it, and then to screen his guilt, of raising a false alarm about the invading hordes having made a swoop upon it. Waterboer proceeded forthwith to levy a fine, as compensation from Sihunel, the Griquas stating that by joining this commando they had lost the season for elephant hunting, besides the expense entailed upon them in carrying it out.

Six hundred head of cattle were therefore demanded as restitution and punishment for what was termed the atrocious conduct of the Barolong chief. Knowing that resistance would be useless, the unfortunate Sihunel paid the number of cattle so unjustly demanded of him, when they were divided among the Griquas and Koranas composing the commando. The carrying out of this expedition gave the missionary chief an opportunity of extending his conquests to the north-east, setting up a claim to all the intervening territory over which he had passed, and adding the Old Platberg mission station and its lands to the West-Griqua dominions.

At this period wherever the Griqua conquests had spread missionary influence was paramount, and whenever necessary a certain amount of salutary physical force could be brought to bear upon the too flagrantly disobedient, by means of the converts under the direction of the Christian chief of Griqua-town. The Griqua power was then at its highest, and extended over the greatest area which it ever attained of lands belonging to the ancient inhabitants, the Bushmen.

But it was this very extent combined with the sparseness of its population which proved fatal to its stability, while the discordant elements of which the population was composed could not be welded together so as to form a united and homogeneous tribe, but constantly gave evidence of crumbling to pieces from its own inherent weakness.

A circumstance, however, which appears to have been accidental in the beginning, ultimately led to the solution of the difficulty by the formation of a second centre, which at last afforded means for the antagonistic and repellent particles of which the body corporate was composed to segregate themselves in a more peaceable manner and gather around the point most congenial to their own proclivities, thus leading to the establishment of the distinct territories of East and West Griqualand ; and if justice had been done to the claims of Cornelius Kok, of Campbell, there would have been a third also, viz. of Central Griqualand. The consideration of this necessarily brings us to the next stage of our subject.

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THE GRIQUA CHIEFS


In carrying out this portion of our enquiry we will, for the sake of convenience and distinctness, do so under the following heads, viz. —

a. Adam Kok, of Philippolis,
b. Cornelius Kok, of Campbell,
c. Barend Barends, of Boetsap, and
d. Jan Bloem the younger.

a. Adam Kok, of Philippolis.

We have already seen that this chief after his departure, or we might say expulsion from Griquatown, for three years lived quietly with his brothers at Campbell, a village which the Koks had founded, and that in 1823 he and his brother Cornelius accompanied Mr. Thompson to Griquatown, with the hope that some adjustment might be arrived at of the differences and grievances of which they complained.

We have also seen that whilst there they readily and energetically responded in cooperation with Waterboer to the urgent appeal of the Batlapin for assistance in repelling the overwhelming invasion which threatened them, that they proceeded with their following of armed retainers to the scene of action and took a conspicuous part in the battle of Lithako, which ended in a victory which must be ever memorable in the annals of the country.

Shortly after his return from this expedition, finding that no redress was to be obtained from the rulers of Griquatown, and evidently disgusted with his position, he abandoned Campbell to his brother, and commenced to lead a precarious, wandering life, without a habitation and without an aim. He crossed to the left bank of the Vaal, and settled for a time near Backhouse. He did not, however, remain here many months, but was found by Dr. Philip in 1825 wandering about in the valley of the Modder river, after which he settled at Philippolis.

In order to understand the terms upon which this settlement was made, it will be necessary to learn something of Philippolis itself. In earlier times missions among the Bushmen had been established at Tooverbjerg and Hephzibah on the southern side of the 'Nu-'Gariep. They were afterwards most unjustifiably suppressed, and the country in which they were was given to the Boers.

The excuse for this arbitrary and iniquitous proceeding on the part of the colonial government was the alleged danger of allowing these hapless outcasts to congregate in any considerable number upon the immediate border, and thus were these unhappy and cruelly treated people unceremoniously driven from the last vestige of the enormous territory which had once belonged to their fathers to the south of the Great river, and without a place of asylum to fly to, their lives were left to the caprice and vindictiveness of the people for whose sole benefit they had been so unrighteously dispossessed.

Naturally indignant at such unworthy treatment, we can imagine many of the strong and manly returning once more to their rocks and caves, while a considerable number of the old and infirm were turned at once by this despotic mandate homeless into the wilds, and reduced to the greatest distress for the means of subsistence.

Seeing this sad state of affairs, the missionaries at the earnest recommendation of the Rev. A. Faure, the minister of the Dutch reformed church at Graaff Reinet, exerted themselves worthily to obtain another home for them to the north of the river. It was then that the site of Philippolis was selected, and its establishment sanctioned by the government, out of compassion, we are told, for these people, and as some compensation to the missionaries for the deprivation of their former stations.

The Bushmen were the original possessors of the district of Philippolis, and it was with their approbation that the mission was commenced in it. We shall remember that Mr. Campbell in his visit in 1820 found that the Bushmen occupying this portion of the tract between the 'Nu 'Gariep and the Vaal had made greater advances towards comfort and a settled life than any others he met with in Southern Africa, having advanced from the hunter to the pastoral stage of existence.

The energetic missionary found Adam Kok, the ex-chief of Griquatown, wandering about with a few followers in the valley of the Great Reed or Gumaap river. Adam pressed very much to be allowed to settle with his people at the mission station of Philippolis, and Dr. Philip consented to his occupation of the grounds of that institution on certain conditions. These were that he was to be allowed to occupy the country as long as it should be found that he protected the mission and was a safe neighbour to the Colony. To this a rider was added that he should also protect the Bushmen.

After Adam's settlement at Philippolis a considerable number of people joined him, and the scattered remnants of his adherents flocked to their old chief once more. Jan Pienaar informs us, in his evidence at the Bloemhof arbitration case, as to the manner in which the original proprietors were disposed of. " The Bushmen," he says, " inhabited the country about Philippolis. We exterminated the Bushmen, and Dr. Philip gave us the country. We exterminated the Bushmen and the Koranas between the Hart and Vaal rivers, and occupied the country."

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That this was no mere figure of speech appears plainly from the following extracts taken from the Graham's Town Journal, written by the Hon. Robert Godlonton, M.L.C., from which we shall find that these unfortunate Bushmen suffered great atrocities not only at the hands of the Koranas, but equally from those of the Griquas who followed them. In one portion of the country where two or three thousand of these people formerly lived, in 1843 but five small kraals of them were left.

Piet Krankuil, a Bushman captain, stated that " the greater part of the country then occupied by the Bastaards was previous to the encroachments of these people inhabited from time immemorial by his own nation, that he had to flee to the Colony and work for his food, because the Bastaards took away all their cattle and murdered their people, that he himself had been attacked several times and his people had been attacked and murdered, that the Bastaards perpetrated the most horrid cruelties upon his nation, that when they had overpowered a Bushman kraal they would make a large fire and throw in all the children and lambs and kids they could not take away with them, and if they could by any chance lay hands on a grown-up Bushman they would cut his throat ; that before the arrival of the Bastaards in their land there were more Bushmen residing in it than there were Bastaards in 1843, and that then there were only two kraals of his people left, containing a very inconsiderable number of inhabitants."

Mr. James Howell quotes another authority, who affirmed that in travelling through the Bastaard country a few years previously, he came upon a heap of bones, and on inquiring of a Griqua named Abram Jager the cause of their being there, this man informed him that he and others of his countrymen had caught thirty Bushmen at that spot and had cut their throats ! Such then was the protection which the hapless aborigines obtained from the Griquas of the new settlement of Philippolis. As the number of the original inhabitants diminished, the Griqua subjects of Adam Kok continued to increase, until the latter became installed as the chief of Philippolis, and was appointed also chief of the scattered Bergenaars.

These people were a motley horde of savages, composed not only of some of the most turbulent of the Korana clans and of Griquas who refused to acknowledge Waterboer as chief, but their ranks were recruited by Bastaards from every part of the Colony. When at the height of their power, these miscreants spread dismay through all the tribes within their reach.

A Basutu chief who was despoiled by them gives the following account of the ruin of his clan. His town was suddenly attacked by a large party of men on horseback. Being a people they had never seen before, and not knowing the destructive nature of their weapons, the Basutu attempted to defend themselves, but seeing a great number of their people falling down dead and the enemy in spite of all they could do driving away their cattle, they at last gave way and ran off in all directions, leaving nearly all their cattle in the hands of the plunderers.

Some time after this, while removing to another part of the country where they hoped to be more secure, the same kind of people were discovered coming towards them. In a state of despair at the prospect before them, the chief desired his people to sit down, and said, " We shall all now be killed ! " The enemy then approached within about thirty yards of them, and, halting, asked them whether they would fight, to which the Basutu replied, " No ; come and take us all away with you ! " They were then desired to put away their weapons, which they did, when the enemy dismounting came in among them and selected such of the boys as were strong enough to go with them and carried them away. One woman resisted having her child taken from her by one of the band, who became so enraged that he took the infant from her back and killed it by dashing it upon the ground.

They then attacked another kraal in the neighbourhood, and took away a great number of cattle. Being thus deprived of their cattle, many of them ventured to follow on the trail of the marauders, hoping to get some food from those who had plundered them. Arriving near the spot where the Bergenaars lived, they met a number of others belonging to plundered tribes who were returning to their country, and who declared they would all be killed if they went on. Upon this hundreds went back reduced to the condition of wild Bushmen, or to obtain a subsistence by plundering other tribes.

Such then being the men by whom the hands of the chief of Philippolis were strengthened, the enormities which they committed upon the Bushmen of the neighbouring country cannot be a matter of surprise, for men who during their previous training were accustomed to disembowel their prisoners to gratify their vindictiveness could not be expected to show much mercy to the wretched Bushmen who came within their grasp. But of however questionable a description a considerable number of Adam Kok's new subjects may have been, the constant acquisitions that flocked to his standard from different quarters at length so far established his position that a convention was entered into between the Griquatown chief and himself.

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The former was at last obliged to acknowledge the reality of the claim set up by the rival Griquas, while his authority was still further strengthened by the treaty which was entered into between himself and one of the governors of the Cape Colony.

It will be unnecessary for our purpose to follow the career of this chief or that of his people further than to note that when his death took place at the end of 1837 or beginning of 1838, his oldest son Abraham assumed the chieftainship ; but the bulk of the old Griqua party objected to this self-assumption, and elected his brother Adam, the second son of the old chief, to rule them.

Civil dissensions and quarrels broke out between the rival brothers and their several partisans, which ended in Abraham being ousted, when his younger brother Adam became thoroughly established in the office of chieftain. This is the Adam who migrated, not only with his own Griquas but also with a considerable number of those belonging to Waterboer, to a new land of promise, then called Nomansland, disposing of the territory of Griqualand East to the Free State authorities.

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b. Cornelius Kok, Chief of Campbell.

We have already noticed the manner in which the Griquas profess to have discovered the springs at Campbell, and also the way in which the Koks acquired the right of cultivating land there. In addition to this, Waterboer, in his letter to the Rev. P. Wright, states that " Mr. Janz took possession of the fountains and valley in 1811 in the name of the London Missionary Society."

We must confess that it seems remarkably strange that an agent of a Society, the members of which have ever set themselves up as champions of the poor oppressed aborigines, could thus coolly annex a piece of territory for the behoof of another set of natives under their charge, without mentioning a single word about the Bushman proprietors, who we now know were living there.

Waterboer also informs Mr. Wright that Mr. Janz and the other missionaries made an arrangement with a party of the Koks to make a settlement there as an outstation of Griqua-town. It would be difficult for any unprejudiced person to discover by what right this was done by men who declared their express mission was to benefit the natives, the place being still occupied by a Bushman captain and his people, against whom no cause of offence was ever alleged. Who were the real natives in this case ?

Waterboer tells us that these people (the Koks) removed to Knoffel Valley agreeably to the recommendation of the missionaries. It might have been added, who in this case usurped the rights of the true aborigines, as they did at Klaarwater, except that this was a more glaring and certainly a greater violation of justice than the former, for in this they had not the excuse of the country being unoccupied at the time of the seizure ; the original inhabitants were still residing there. It matters not whether there was only one or a thousand, they were there.

And all right principle must surely tell us that the wrong inflicted on these poor people, for the benefit of their own protégés, was as great in the one case as the other. No idea of compensation was evidently ever thought of, until it was demanded of the Koks by the Bushman captain himself, and the purchase of the right to cultivate by them certainly would not entitle all the Griquas of Griqua-town to do the same. How these men, philanthropists by profession, could have allowed themselves to have been so blinded to the rights of men of another and weaker race than those belonging to their own mission, must appear to any disinterested person marvellous.

Dr. Philip, writing upon this purchase, gives as an instance " that at a very early period the Griquas (the Koks rather) had imbibed some principles of justice towards the Bushmen, from the missionaries." The exemplification of these principles of justice, Waterboer has informed us, was that one of their number had taken possession of Knoffel Valley without the slightest reference to its legitimate owners at all !

The Koks, on the other hand, who we have been told were sufficiently civilised even under the old Dutch regime to be classed as burghers, and who possessed landed property in the Cape Colony, knew that the proper way to obtain a just right was by purchase, and therefore advanced no objection to the demand made by the Bushman. The land undoubtedly belonged to the Bushman race, certainly not to the London Missionary Society, although it had been taken possession of in its name. If we refer to this transaction critically, we shall find that the Bushman's intention was evidently to give an individual right, certainly not a national one.

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From the very heterogeneous materials of which they were composed, the Griquas were not a united people, but were from the very beginning broken up into several sections, that were not only jealous, but almost hostile to one another. The original adherents and hunting companions of the ex-burgher Kok and his family and connections and their descendants formed one portion. These people were of much purer Hottentot blood than most of the others, having very much the same habits and customs as the Koranas and other Hottentot tribes.

Among the Koranas, although all joined for general defence, each kraal or settlement had its own special head or captain, while each kraal considered itself perfectly independent of the others ; the bond of union was the appearance of a common enemy, which forced all those threatened to act in unison. The old Griqua party represented this phase of ideas.

Another section was composed of the more recent additions from the old colony, the new-comers bearing names which left very little doubt about their origin, and in addition to them emancipated slaves. The former of these formed the great strength of the Griqua-town party, who were ever striving, openly or secretly, to undermine the authority of every one opposed to their favourite ideas.

A third section might be termed the foreign, or imported element, composed of Koranas, Bachoana, and others taken under protection. The Koranas had their sympathies strongly attracted towards the old Griqua party ; the Bachoana appear never to have had their independence called in question, and would certainly side with the winning party.

This throws some light upon the point why the Koks and their adherents became obnoxious to those in power in Griquatown : they were stumbling-blocks in the way of the universal dominion of Griquatown, and must be removed. For many years attempts were made at short intervals by the missionary party to deprive Cornelius Kok of his authority, and frequent misrepresentations were made to the colonial government concerning him by the partisans of Waterboer ; but he managed to hold his own as an independent chief, and before his death transferred his rights unimpaired to his nephew Adam, then residing at Philippolis.

c. Barend Barends, the Chief of Boetsap.

We have already traced the early career of this Griqua chief, and the feuds which sprang up between him and the notorious Africaander. This life, affording little gain to either party, at length became unendurable to Barend Barends, who, wearied with the never-ending conflicts, migrated far from his undaunted antagonist, in which movement he was followed by Cornelius Kok of the Khamiesberg. Proceeding along the course of the river, he at length crossed it with his followers at its great southern bend, and settled for a time at Hardcastle and its neighbourhood. It was whilst staying here that Kok passed him and joined the missionaries, who by this time had pitched their tents at Klaarwater.

He had not, however, taken up his abode at this new settlement for any length of time before he discovered that the marauding excursions of his old and inveterate enemy were likely to become once more a source of annoyance. He therefore migrated still farther to the north-east, and passing Griquatown, finally settled at 'Tlaka-lo-tlou, or as it was afterwards called Daniel's Kuil. He was living at this place when Adam Kok left Griquatown, and was, as we have seen, an acknowledged chief of the Griqua people. In 1820 he was spoken of by Mr. Campbell as " another Griqua captain, though a man of better principles and morals than the others."

This Griqua chief became an ordained native teacher, as was the elder Waterboer, hence it will be easily understood that jealousies arose between them, and that as soon as it was found that he was not an upholder of the ambitious projects of the Griquatown party, he should be considered a stumbling-block in their way and pointed out as a Bergenaar by them. The cause of the ill feeling and opposition will be better understood when we learn that it was contrary to the wishes and remonstrances of the missionaries of Griquatown that he removed to Daniel's Kuil, where they state somewhat contemptuously, " a few disaffected individuals " joined him. But, fortunately for the cause of truth, we have been able to discover that he was chief of the most influential portion of the Griquas, viz. the Bastaards, for a considerable time before any of them crossed the Great river.

The great and real cause of offence, but one which they could not bring openly against him, was that he had invited Mr. Archbell, a member of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, to come and reside with him at Daniel's Kuil ; thus it was that in a short lime a controversy arose between the two rival Societies, the London and the Wesleyan, as to which had the right of teaching at Daniel's Kuil.

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Mr. Archbell, the Wesleyan missionary at Boetsap, complained that although his mission had already established an outstation at Daniel's Kuil, after this arrangement had been made a missionary of the London Society had been sent to hold worship there. Dr. Philip assured the Rev. W. Shaw, the Superintendent General of Wesleyan Missions in South Africa, that the only right Barend had at Daniel's Kuil was the right of sowing corn there. A document was at last signed by Dr. Philip, the Rev. W. Shaw, and Mr. Archbell, that any dispute about the land should be decided by the chiefs and not by the missionaries.

Under ordinary circumstances this proposition would appear fair, but in the present instance, as far as the Griquatown party were concerned, it might just as well have been left in the hands of their missionaries themselves, as the chief Waterboer had already acknowledged to his friend the Rev. P. Wright, that he considered himself responsible, not only to the people, but also to the London Missionary Society in every thing which had relation to the well-being of the (i.e. their) missions. Under such circumstances how could he be any other than their mouthpiece and the mere exponent of their wishes ?

The dominion of the belauded Griquas of Griquatown had been built up by zealous members of the London Society, its present ruler had not only been selected, but reared and trained by them, they were in possession of the only real authority, both religious and political, and could they, who had in their own hands and in their own special keeping the strings which guided every movement in the Griqua destinies, allow any encroachment on their self-defined domains, without an effort on their part to prevent it ?

Mr. Shaw appeared to realise the position, and stated that under such peculiar circumstances there was nothing surprising that Barend and his friends, the Wesleyan missionaries, "should feel jealous and uneasy at the political chicanery of the chief and court at Griquatown."

In 1823 Barend accompanied the other Griqua chiefs with his retainers on their expedition to the rescue of the Batlapin, and aided in the victory gained by them over the Mantatees at Lithako. In the following year he and his followers had the glory of a second victory, single-handed, over a portion of the same great invading host.

Mr. Moffat, accompanied by a party of mounted Griquas under Barend Barends, who were upon a hunting and bartering expedition, came suddenly upon the advanced body of these invaders when in the Barolong territory. Mr. Moffat and his party narrowly escaped with their lives, the enemy having succeeded in surrounding them.

On this occasion the small party of Griqua horsemen, being mounted and armed, succeeded not only in freeing itself, but in protecting from destruction a large clan of Barolong that must otherwise have been annihilated by the Bataung section of the Mantatee horde, which was still wandering about in a famishing condition. This victory gave an impetus to the ideas of Barend, which ultimately culminated in one of the greatest disasters that ever befell the Griqua arms.

The entrance of the Wesleyan missionaries into this part of the country was in 1822. Their first attempt to establish a mission in the Bachoana country failed, in consequence of the severe illness of one of the missionaries, but soon afterwards Mr. Archbell settled at Boetsap. This was at the time when Messrs. Hodgson and Broadbent were enabled to commence a mission at a large native town called Maquassie with the Barolong tribe. Sihunel, the father of Moroka, was the chief of this portion of the Barolong nation. The people belonging to this mission were soon afterwards driven away and scattered by powerful and warlike tribes, but they rallied again and finally settled at Thaba Nchu, the Black Mountain, or the Mountain of Gloom, where they still reside.

During the stay of the missionaries at Boetsap the chief Barend Barends continued his hunting expeditions into the interior, principally for the purpose of procuring ivory. Mosele-katze having in the meanwhile fixed his great place in the heart of the desolated country of the Bakuena, Barend on one of these occasions visited the den of this terrible Lion of the North, at the time that Mr. Moffat had his first interview with the great despot of the Abaka-Zulu or Matabili.

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What he then saw, in traversing this war-stricken land, the ravaged cornfields, the blackened ruins of a multitude of towns, and the signs of indiscriminate slaughter of the wretched inhabitants, made such an impression upon his mind, and so worked upon his imagination that he at length laboured under the strong delusion that he was destined to sweep Moselekatze and his gang of blood-guilty warriors from the fine pastures and glens of the Bakone country, an idea to which the comparatively easy and bloodless victory he had gained single-handed over a portion of the Mantatee hordes in their attack upon the Barolong, in all probability gave rise, and which possibly made him imagine that could he inflict a similar crushing defeat upon the Matabili warriors, he would be able to emancipate the remnant of the subjugated tribes from the state of miserable thraldom to which they had been reduced by their pitiless conquerors.

Filled with this holy furor he determined to enter upon a crusade against them, and thus set himself up as the champion of the weak against the strong, of the oppressed against their oppressors. His aspirations were praiseworthy, but the natural instincts of his cattle-accumulating co-patriots frustrated the great object of his ambition, and covered his project with confusion and disaster.

A heterogeneous multitude of Griquas from every party except that of Waterboer, Koranas, and other tribes were collected, with sentiments as varied as the costumes they wore, but unanimous in their enmity to the Matabili king, and thus reinforced Barend sallied forth on what he considered a noble and daring enterprise. A long cavalcade of waggons and horsemen, with their magazines of destruction, moved up along the course of the Vaal towards the dominions of the haughty tyrant, while the company as they proceeded received fresh accessions from the Barolong and others who expected to come in for a share of the spoil.

Having arrived at the nearest point on the river to their destined goal, the expedition halted. Spies were sent out, who returned with the most glowing descriptions : the hills were living with the immense herds which grazed upon them, they were too numerous to be kraaled, the Matabili warriors were all far away, attacking some of the distant tribes to the north, none but old men and boys were left behind, and the cattle kept guard over themselves. The chance was too dazzling to be allowed to let slip. A thousand mounted Bastaards and Koranas dashed across the Vaal river, armed with guns and well provided with ammunition. This was in 1831.

A rapid, yet stealthy march was made, principally by night, until they arrived within a short distance of the much desired object of their enterprise. Halting the expeditionary force in a portion of the country favourable for concealment, their scouts were again sent forward to reconnoitre the positions of their unsuspecting foe. Barends himself was detained at the main camp on the Vaal, from the shattered state of his health, and was therefore compelled to remain in the rear when the advance was finally made. The scouting party quickly discovered the various positions of the enemy, and again the confident horsemen advanced, as much under cover as possible ; and then with the swoop of an eagle they were, almost before an alarm could be given, in the very centre of the vast herds of the Matabili chief.

Moselekatze was taken by surprise, and made ready to take refuge in his own jungle. The men who defended his outposts teeming with cattle either fell or fled in consternation, till the mass of captured cattle became too numerous to be guarded even by such a force ; while the sight of fat oxen and the lowing of kine captivated the souls of the invaders. Their retreat was as rapid as the encumbrance of their spoil would allow.

The first and second day passed, and they were still hurrying homeward ; and by the end of the third day many miles intervened between them and their daring capture. They now believed themselves beyond all danger of pursuit. That night there was slaughtering and feasting and rejoicing in the camp. The jubilant warriors ate to their full. The female prisoners warned them of their danger, but elated with their success, they encamped in straggling detachments. "Shall a Kaffir dare to fight with a Griqua?" was the evening's watchword. About midnight, without a picket or sentinel on the watch, all self-secure, they rolled themselves in their karosses around their camp-fires, and fell asleep.

But before the day broke, just as the waning moon emerged from behind the mountain peak, a chosen band of veteran Matabili rushed upon the slumbering host, scattering confusion, terror, and death. An exultant yell first startled the stillness of the dawn, and their dreaded enemy was upon them. Hundreds were transfixed with the broad blades of the grim warriors ere they could throw off their cloaks, many never rose from the ground at all, those who did died heaped on one another, the blood of the dead and dying, running like streams, was trodden into mud. Horses and riders were butchered together.

Such was the panic that even among those who could seize their weapons, many fell by the guns of their own comrades. Three alone, who formed a kind of outer horse-guard, managed to ensconce themselves in a thick bush, whence they kept up an incessant fire while their ammunition lasted, and then jumping on the first horses they could catch, rode for their lives, and were soon far from their pursuers.

The sun rose upon a field red with blood, the accompanying stillness was the stillness of death, while a thousand corpses lay stark and gory, piled over the ground in hideous heaps. The cattle again fell into the hands of the remorseless victors, and none of the expeditionary force ever returned to boast of the herds of cattle which had been captured from the Matabili chief. The scene of carnage was visited by Moselekatze, and as he viewed the carcases of his foes, his exultation knew no bounds.

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In a few days Barend, infirm in years, who as we have seen remained behind with the waggons several days' journey from where the catastrophe occurred, heard the tale of horror, and, half-convinced that he was not the man to give redemption to the Bakone, returned to his station to be greeted with the widows' wail. A conical mountain seen from a considerable distance in every direction, and near the Makakokan river, points to the spot where this terrible overthrow took place. Captain Harris, who visited it five years afterwards, describes it at that time as "a perfect Golgotha, thickly strewn with the whitened bones of men and horses, broken guns, and tattered clothing."

The immediate effect of this disaster was to spread a panic among the inhabitants of Boetsap, the Kolong valley. Great Platberg, and the surrounding country ; and dreading the vengeance of the implacable tyrant of the Matabili, tribe after tribe, Barolong, Bastaard, and Korana, gradually migrated to the more mountainous districts to the eastward. Barends himself retreated from Boetsap with a number of his followers to Namaqualand, where he wandered from place to place for a couple of years. In 1833 the Bastaards who had joined the station at Great Platberg left that place with the missionaries, and moved towards Basutuland.

A body of Koranas who had also been for some time under the care of the missionaries accompanied them. In 1834 Barends himself rejoined them. The mountain near the present town of Ladybrand was called New Platberg by these emigrants, after the old station they had left.

The Griqua-Bastaards under Barend Barends settled between Makwatling and New Platberg, on a place called Groenkloof, near Mr. Daumas' mission station. Moshesh, who asserted some rights over the lands taken possession of, was glad to receive them, as the Griquas and Koranas possessed firearms and knew how to use them. He was well pleased at the prospect of having near neighbours in friendly alliance, who might aid in the general defence from any future attacks of the fierce Kaffir races that had so recently overrun the country.

Barend Barends remained the acknowledged chief at Newlands until just before his death, when, being taken ill, he travelled over to his old station at Boetsap for change of air. Here, however, bowed down with infirmity, and full of years, he ended his eventful career, shortly after his arrival.

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d. Jan Bloem the Younger.

We have already seen that the Koranas took possession of the country, and that Jan Bloem the elder was elected chief of the numerous tribe of Springboks long before the advent of the Griquas, and therefore certainly antecedent to their unjustifiable claims to such an immense tract of Bushman territory. His son, Jan Bloem the younger, always declared his right to independence of action, but from beginning to end it was a grand scramble for land among these Griquas, each striving to obtain as much as possible. As it was with the Koranas and Kaffirs in their struggles for cattle, so it was with these people in their endeavours under missionary guidance to obtain great tracts of country. In both cases eventually the strongest kept possession of the coveted prize. The abstract matter of right never once interfered in the decision of the question.

Concluding Remarks.

During all these squabbles for land, it will be interesting to inquire how the original Bushman proprietors were benefited by the appropriation of their country by the intruders. The entire land was undoubtedly their primitive possession. They wandered about, where water was scarce, from fountain to fountain in small scattered bands, especially so on the great limestone plateau ending in the Griquatown valley, called the 'Kaap or Campbell Rand.

They were numerous in the Kolong and Malalarene basin, and along the banks of the 'Gij-'Gariep and 'Gumaap, while in the large central plains between these two rivers they were not only more numerous, but they had commenced a more settled mode of existence, having adopted pastoral pursuits in conjunction with their hunter life. Some of them possessed considerable herds of cattle, and were more civilised than those met with in any other part of South Africa.

The Bushmen of this portion of the continent were more docile, more teachable, and more grateful for kindnesses done them than some of the other races. What then became of this, certainly, improvable race ? What benefit did they derive from their contact with races who looked down upon them as beings of an inferior grade ? Jan Pienaar has told us what was done with them in the country around Philippolis, and with those living between the Hart (Kolong) and Vaal rivers. " We exterminated them, we shot them down and occupied the country."

The Griquatown people were exasperated against the Bushmen of the country around their mission station, and the Rev. J. Philip assures us that "hatred, in such a country, is always accompanied with danger to the object to whom it is directed." We need not therefore be surprised to discover that the cause of exasperation in the present instance disappeared.

Some millions of acres of their ancient hunting fields were thus absorbed by the intruding tribes of whose career we have been attempting to give a sketch, when another and still stronger race appeared in the field. The effect of their coming will necessarily be treated more fully when we consider the influence of the immigration of the European races. It will be sufficient here to allude to one incident connected with them, and thus prevent the necessity of returning to this portion of the country again, while at the same time it will give us rather a vivid idea of the manner in which land was obtained when, as was too frequently the case, it was not seized by mere brute force, and what sort of conditions were made in land transactions with the Bushmen.

Already in 1837, in the nineteen years which had elapsed since Mr. Campbell's visit, the kraals of the semi-pastoral Bushmen had disappeared. These portions of the Bushman race, which were said to be more civilised than others that were met with, were no longer to be found ; a few detached remnants of tribes, hunted about like wild beasts, were all that remained. Still notwithstanding the guns of the Korana, the Griqua, and the Boer had proved such terrible instruments of destruction, it was some few years before the last relics of the old race were dispossessed of the last acre of their ancestral possessions.

The Blue book of the Bloemhof Arbitration affords us some light upon the subject. In it we find a copy of a deed of sale by a Bushman called therein David Danser to a Boer named Stephanus Fourie, of all the rights inherited from his father to the land from the Modder river to the Vaal upward to the Sand river, which he engages never to reclaim, and undertakes to remove with his people beyond the Vaal, for which he acknowledges the receipt as payment of a riding horse and seventy sheep.

We can imagine this unfortunate Bushman, surrounded by armed men, signing away of his own free will the birthright of his tribe for a riding horse and some threescore sheep !

As a sequel to this we find Major Warden addressing the high commissioner on the 3rd of August 1850 upon this very purchase, as follows : "Upon reaching Van Wyk's Vlei I found the farmers assembled at the house of the fieldcomet Fourie. Their complaints were solely against a Bushman, Captain 'Kousopp. This man has by means of some agent addressed letters to most of the farmers residing in Fourie's ward, stating that the country belongs to him ('Kousopp), and desiring them immediately to quit their farms. I sent for the Bushman, and the following day he made his appearance with some twenty of his followers.

The Bushmen who acknowledge 'Kousopp as their chief have within the last few months committed several thefts of cattle from the Boers on the Modder river. I therefore dealt with 'Kousopp in a summary manner, and threatened to lodge him in gaol if he caused any more trouble to the farmers. The Van Wyk's country was purchased by the Boers many years ago from the Bushman David Danser, and now comes another claimant for the same, stating that he was ever considered a greater chief than Danser, and that his father had all the Bushmen of that part of the country under him for many years.

I told 'Kousopp that His Excellency's proclamation had long ago settled all such matters, and given the land to the Boer occupants. I beg to recommend that twelve miles along the Vaal river and six towards the Middle Veld, adjoining the country allotted to David Danser and the Korana captain Goliath, be given to the Bushman 'Kousopp."

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Such then were some of these astounding purchases of land. The land was purchased from the Bushmen was of course the declaration. Yes ! purchased, a riding horse and seventy fat-tailed sheep, valued in those days at some four shillings and six-pence each, for upwards of two and a quarter millions of acres of land ! What a premium for fraud and forgery ! There can be but very little doubt that at that time there were many documents of a similar class that were pure forgeries in existence, which professed to be deeds of sale of extensive pieces of land, which had they been critically examined, bore the stamp of fraud upon the very face of them.

Even in such instances, where a document was drawn up in the Bushman's presence, what did the unfortunate who put his hand to the cross know of the actual contents of the paper in front of him, or the extent of the land which it proposed to alienate ? The witnesses around him were all men possessed of an insatiable land-hunger. If disputes afterwards arose, as the real truth dawned upon him, and he became troublesome, an accidental ricochet would give a quietus to an inconvenient dispute. Men thus hungering after land, and only too eager to grasp it on any conditions, did not trouble their heads about the rights of the man who professed himself willing to make it over to them ; and thus entire tribes were wrongfully dispossessed by the machinations of one evil designer.

Land, once taken possession of, was taken over without recurrence, and no errors were allowed or acknowledged after the transaction was completed, whoever might have been the parties concerned. What justice could be expected to be shewn to such a race as the Bushmen, when, as we have seen, even missionaries apportioned out their country to the very men who afterwards confessed that they annihilated its old possessors ?

The closing scenes in the history of this tribe have been preserved, and the writer was fortunate enough in 1874 and 1879 to obtain a narrative of them, and thus to be able to rescue them from the oblivion which threatened to overtake them in a few years. These Bushmen have left many evidences of their former occupation of this portion of South Africa. And even after this questionable sale it was not until many a desperate struggle had taken place that their annihilation or expulsion was achieved. Several places are yet pointed out where, under some of their more daring leaders, they attempted to rise and expel the invaders, and others where they turned at bay upon their pursuers, and standing back to back neither asked nor expected quarter, until the last man fell in his death throes upon a heap of his slaughtered compatriots.

'Kousopp, the Bushman chief mentioned by Major Warden as protesting against the alienation of his country by the fraudulent action of David Danser, was in reality the acknowledged paramount Bushman chief of the entire country. He was called Scheel Kobus by the Dutch emigrant farmers. He was the son of 'Twa'goup, who was killed by a lion whilst out hunting in the days of the elder Bloem, at the pan a little to the north-west of the present Hebron, on the left side of the Vaal.

'Twa-'goup was one of the great Bushman captains. He ruled over the clans of the 'Gij-'Gumaap or Modder river proper, the 'Nu-'Gumaap, or the Riet river above its junction with the Modder, as well as of the 'Gumaap itself or the Great Riet river, and thence stretching across the Middle Veld to the 'Gij-'Gariep or Vaal. After his father's death, the headquarters of 'Kousopp were at the two spitzkopjes to the left of the 'Gumaap and opposite Koedoesberg, which was known to the Bushmen by the name of 'Kun-'kgoap. It was when the captain 'Kousopp fell back towards the Vaal, that another clan or portion of the tribe retreated to the stronghold amid the rocky islands of the 'Gumaap.

On a knoll near the eastern end of the great pan at Alexander Fontein some old ruins were pointed out to the writer in 1872, by Mr. Wessels, the proprietor of the farm. These ruined walls were the remains of a flat-roofed tenement belonging to some of the early emigrant Boers ; and it was here also that these Bushmen determined to make one more effort to clear the country of their obnoxious presence. At this place therefore some three hundred of them surprised and beleaguered a party of seven Boers, who managed to ensconce and defend themselves from behind the parapet of the fiat roof.

The besiegers tried to set fire to the building, but failed in the attempt. For three days the little garrison was vigorously besieged, and as determinedly defended themselves, their elevated position preventing their assailants from taking it by storm, although several times they essayed to do so. One of the defenders of the place was shot, when on the third day they were relieved by the approach of a commando which came to succour them.

The Bushmen now in their turn fled, and were closely pursued for many miles to their retreat, the stronghold among the rocky islands spoken of. This place, near the present homestead of the Wildemans, had long formed, among their rocky fastnesses, a secure retreat, which for a considerable time proved an impregnable fortress, where they had been able to repel successive attacks made upon them by the Koranas, the Griquas, and the Boers.

Hunted like wild beasts whenever they were found wandering over the wide spreading plains which they had inherited from their fathers, their extinction became a mere matter of time in an unequal struggle between the primitive bow and arrow, with which they fought, and the deadly gun in the hands of their invaders. Wherever there was cover, there they tenaciously clung to their favourite haunts, and when attacked, fearlessly and courageously defended their rock citadels ; but at the time when they made the retreat to which we have alluded, 'Kousopp with the main portion of the tribe had migrated towards the Vaal, while many of the other tribes of their countrymen had been annihilated or driven from the country.

A few rock chippings of great antiquity are found scattered about on some of the flat rocks of this island-refuge, and although only representing animals of the chase, these rude works of art are the ancient title-deeds of their race to the wide-spread plains around them, which had been occupied not only by themselves, but by their remote ancestors.

But the grand testimonials of the great antiquity of their occupation are to be found some miles lower down the same river, recorded on the polished and striated rocks of the Blaauw Bank. This latter place affords us an instance not of a grim rock-fortress amid precipitous gorges, where the death struggle of a tribe has taken place, but a spot that must have been, during the time of their undisturbed sovereignty, a place memorable to their race, where thousands of square feet of the highly polished rock surface are covered with innumerable mystic devices, intermingled with comparatively few animal figures. This must have been a palace residence of the most highly mystic of their race, of men who held something more than the mere chieftainship of a tribe.

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It must have been a high place, where they gathered for their festivals of dancings and mysterious rites or counsel, a place where for generations their leaders who were the most skilled in the emblematic lore, the symbols of which were engraved around, awed their less initiated brethren with frantic orgies, or vehement recitals of the traditions of the renowned and daring hunters from whom they themselves had sprung, or still more ancient myths of times yet more remote, when, as they believed, men and animals consorted on more equal terms than they themselves, and used a kindred speech understood by all!

The sculptors of the innumerable symbols here found covering the rocks were in all probability the ancestors of the tribe of 'Twa'goup, while he himself was possibly descended from the great mystic of mystics who designed them, and who lived at the time when they believed that they and the lions shared the world between them.

Far other was the character of the retreat among the rocky islands. Here was no place adapted for festive meetings, but rather one to which they could retire as their pitiless invaders pressed closer and closer round on every side, outnumbered but still not beaten. This doubtless became the great stronghold of the ancient 'Gumaap tribe, to which they fell back when they made the dread discovery that there were other and stronger races of men upon the earth than themselves, and that these strangers, who must have appeared to them like giants, were gradually invading and possessing themselves of the best of their country.

Soon the dire struggle for very existence commenced around them, and this became their last and only place of refuge. It was a struggle that was to be maintained until this hapless remnant of untamed and primitive hunters was hemmed in by their restless pursuers, filled with implacable hate and thirsting for their blood. It was here that, finding no hope of escape, they turned upon their insatiate foes for the last time, and then fell one after the other beneath a storm of bullets, until the last man had let fly the only arrow left, and then, alone, disarmed, but still unconquered, and taunting his enemies, he saw the murderous guns all levelled at him ; then, muffling his head in his kaross, that none might see a death-pang on his face, he stood erect, and with a dauntless front received the deadly fire that had been poured upon his tribe, and falling back without a groan, he marked with his blood the extinction of his clan.

Nor, as we shall see, was the fate of 'Kousopp and the remainder of his tribe less tragical than that of those who chose the 'Gumaap as their place of refuge. Had these men belonged to a more civilised race, the determined struggle which they made for their country and their freedom would have been deemed heroic, and such a place as the rocky islands of the 'Gumaap would have been held sacred as having witnessed one of these closing scenes, and remained for ever a landmark in the history of a nation of brave and fearless men.

'De'coie, called by the voortrekkers De 'Goep and David Danser, was, as we have seen, the petty captain who sold the ground to the Boers. When 'Kousopp heard of this transaction, he protested vehemently against it, and a quarrel took place between them.

Shortly after this a son of 'De'coie died rather suddenly, when his father imagined that his death had been caused by witchcraft, and that one of the Goliath Koranas was the sorcerer who had worked the evil. 'De'coie demanded the alleged offender from Goliath, that he might be put to death, when Goliath denied the accusation, and refused to comply with the demand. War then broke out between the Goliaths and 'De'coie's Bushmen, and a great battle took place between them near Platberg, 'Ker-by-'kaam or Red Krantz.

'De'coie was assisted by some of the Lynx Koranas. They succeeded in defeating the Goliaths, and depriving them of everything they possessed. 'De'coie then fell back with the spoil he had secured to the 'Gu-maam, i.e. Spruit, or as they sometimes called it 'Gum-'Gariep, the Little river, now known as Vet river. Finding out that their enemy had fled, the Goliaths rallied and followed on the trail of the Bushmen, and overtook them at 'Gum-'Gariep. Taking them by surprise, they recaptured the cattle, but they had not proceeded far when they were again overtaken by the Bushmen, and fell into an ambuscade prepared for them, when they once more lost their cattle, and were obliged to return with a single ox, the only hoof they had managed to keep.

Irritated with this second repulse, on their way back they fell upon the remaining Lyxx Koranas out of revenge for the part a portion of their tribe had taken, seized their cattle, and returned with them to Goliath's stronghold, a large island in the 'Gij-'Gariep, below 'Ker-by-'kaam or Platberg. A short time after this 'De'coie, the traitor who fraudulently sold the country, died.

'Kousopp, indignant that his land was thus unjustly and unceremoniously seized, determined to carry on a war of reprisals to the bitter end. No inducement could prevail on him and his people to cease from the depredations they carried on against the intruding Boers. Horses, cattle, sheep, alike fell into the hands of the angry chief, houses were destroyed, and several of the farmers and their servants lost their lives. Frequent demands were made upon him for the restitution of the stolen property. His invariable answer was, " Restore my land, and I will cease from troubling you ! Give me back the land of my fathers, and there shall be peace ! "

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The climax, however, at length arrived. Having seized the entire flocks of one Jan Venter, he drove them to his retreat in the great islands in the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal, below Hebron. Here they were demanded, and refused as before upon the same plea. The Bushmen feasted and danced, the sheep disappeared, the lambs only were left. Venter sent him word that he was coming to fetch them.

A strong commando was assembled, when finding that his enemies were coming in force, he retreated from his islands to the precipitous portion of the river lower down. Here the Boers surrounded his position. A few Griquas who had joined 'Kousopp managed to fight their way out, but he would not deign to retreat farther. He defended himself desperately ; but his determined courage availed him nothing, he and his people fell to a man. Men, women, and children were alike shot down, not one was spared, not a soul escaped. Thus perished the last great captain of the Bushman tribes of the Vaal, and since then there has been, as the Koranas described it, peace in the land.

We have now traced the movements of all these Hottentot tribes as far as we are able, and the bearing their migrations have had upon the destinies of the Bushman race. We will now in conclusion take a short review of the character of the favoured Griquas, who had been under such special care and training for a considerable period, gathering our data from those who can throw some light upon the cause of their rapid decadence and the complete collapse of the Utopian scheme of a regenerated kingdom of " poor natives " under the fostering care of their politico-religious guardians.

We have already pointed out that the Griqua power was at its height about 1825-6, at the time when Waterboer had made the Griquatown influence felt as far as Sannah's Poort, now Fauresmith. It will not be necessary to trace the various stages of its decline, as the very materials of which the commonwealth was composed were unstable and worthless, and the principles adopted by those at the helm were not only visionary, but in direct opposition to the teachings of past history.

In the portion of Southern Africa now under consideration, where the upholders of the old missionary system were able to carry out for a long period of years their pet schemes perfectly untrammelled, where they appropriated lands at their pleasure, built up tribes and made and unmade chiefs at their discretion, taking for their example the priests and prophets of old who anointed or denounced the petty kings of their time as they excited their displeasure or pandered to their priestly assumptions, the outcome has been miserably unproductive ; for if we calmly and dispassionately ask the question, what have been the results ? there can be but one truthful reply, failure, utter failure !

We have already expressed astonishment that men who could speak so pathetically of " the poor natives " could not see the inconsistency of upholding the fictitious rights of their protégés at the expense of another race, whose land had been coolly appropriated because it was weaker than themselves. We have seen both at Klaarwater and Knoffel Valley that Bushman rights were never for a moment thought of. It was never considered whether such a primitive race had a right to any country at all, that, in the opinion of these simple-minded gentlemen, must be reserved for " the poor native," frequently, however, rich in cattle ! So that when land, more land, was required, the original and rightful owners were treated as mere ciphers in the calculation.

Much has been said about the cruel treatment the Griquas have received with regard to their land. They acquired it simply, as we have seen, by the law of might. The Korana testimony upon this point is conclusive. Their right was established by the extinction of the ancient race, to whom it originally belonged. They seized it by violence, and retained it by bloodshed.

The habit of marauding was persisted in up to a very recent period, and whenever an opportunity offered, they endeavoured to enrich themselves by the plunder of weaker tribes. As it was with the Koranas, so it was with many of the Griquas, feasting and revelry so long as the supply afforded by the last capture lasted, then, like our own borderers of old, " boot and saddle " as soon as the store of beeves required replenishing. Being armed with guns, they considered themselves a great power among the natives, and were generally successful, although the terrible disaster which befell the expedition against the herds of Moselekatze proved that they could sometimes meet with reverses.

As we now know that during the Hottentot rebellion of 1850 several parties of Kat river and Theopolis Hottentots held prayer meetings before they proceeded to attack or attempt to murder their old masters, so we can imagine that a good supply of cheap beef would not interfere with any energetic devotional exercises in which they from time to time engaged to hoodwink their spiritual teachers, while the excuse of hunting gave a plausible reason for every expedition in which they might engage.

Much as we deplore the cruelty of the Bergenaars, what shall we say of the so-called mild and unoffending Christian Griquas, under a missionary chief, when we learn that in 1839 some Bushmen had been lately destroyed by a party of them in the neighbourhood of Griquatown. " A party of Bushmen who had taken refuge in a cave refused to surrender ; they were destroyed," says Mr. Backhouse, " by setting on fire fuel collected at the cave's mouth ! "

During one of the writer's visits to Griquatown, the man under whom these atrocious instructions were carried out was pointed out to him. He was one Joubert, a field captain or commandant of Waterboer. Some 120 or 130 men, women, and children, the entire remnant of the tribe, had fled to the cave for refuge. Fearing to come out and surrender themselves to the tender mercies of those who summoned them, they refused to obey, when great piles of brushwood were heaped before the cave, and the last of the unfortunate wretches within was suffocated by order of this monster. Not a soul escaped !

It will not be necessary to pursue the history of these tribes further. Their decline was even more rapid than their exaltation. When the writer first visited Griquatown in 1872, with the exception of the chief's residence with its enclosures and two or three other houses, Griquatown was in ruins, and the winds were gradually blowing holes even into the roof of their sanctuary.

The missionaries for some cause or other had long deserted the station, and when Waterboer the younger made over the country to the British authorities, a few hundred Griquas of all sizes composed the dilapidated nation. But to the true aborigines of the country the evil had been done.

Oppressed, defrauded, hunted down like wild beasts, the Christian bullets and the suffocating smoke had accomplished the task imposed upon them, and the numerous tribes of aborigines that once filled the valleys of the Kolong, the 'Gij and 'Nu 'Gariep all had vanished from the face of the earth. A few miserable fugitive outcasts were alone to be found here and there, while the rocks their great ones had sculptured were the only testimony of their former occupation.

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THE AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL BACHOANA AND BASUTU TRIBES OF THE NORTH.


We have now arrived at a portion of our inquiry when we have to treat of men of a widely different race from those whose history we have passed under review, men of more robust build and of a fiercer and more warlike appearance, speaking a language altogether different in its construction, and therefore indicating an independent origin from that of the Bushman branch of the human family.

It was the peculiar construction of their language which led the late Dr. Bleek to term those speaking it the Bantu group. Upon this subject Professor Sayce makes the following remarks : " If we turn our eyes to South Africa, there too we shall find a clearly marked group of tongues spoken by Kaffir tribes from Mozambique to Sierra Leone, and termed Ba-ntu by Dr. Bleek. It is to this scholar that we owe our present knowledge of the family, and his untimely death must be deplored by every student of language."

Mr. H. Charles Schunke states that " the Ba-ntu extend a few degrees north of the equator, that is in the north-east to the country of the Gallas and the northern part of the Lacustrine regions, in the north-west to the Gaboon territory, and even the inhabitants of Fernando Po belong to this class. The most northern tribes are the Wakuafi, Wapocomo, Wacamba, Benga, Bakeli, and Fernandians. The most southern the Amamfengo, Basuto, Ovaherero, and Ovambantieru. The whole of the Ba-ntu may be divided into a South-Eastern, Middle, and Northern branch."

Belonging to the northern branch we have the Bakeh, Benga, and the inhabitants of Fernando Po.

The middle branch consists of —
1. The Mozambique tribes, the Makua, Ma-'syao, and the Sena and Tete tribes on the Zambesi.
2. The Zanquebar or Zangian tribes, Wakumba, Wanika, Wasuahih, Wasambara, Wa'nyamuezi, Wajiji (of Ujiji), Warua, etc. Probably all the tribes on the Lualaba found by Livingstone and Cameron may, judging from the nature of their names, belong to this division.
3. The tribes of the Interior, Bayeyi and Baukxoba.
4. The Bunda tribes, Ovaherero (with Ovambantieru), Ovambo, Okavangari, Ovakuambi, Ovakuandyera, the Vanano (of Benguela), and the tribes of Angola.
5. The Congo and Mpongwe tribes.

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The southern branch is divided in its turn into Kaffirs, Zulu, Bechuana with Batlapin and Basutu. and the tribes near Delagoa Bay.

It is with this last branch that we are concerned in our examination of the intrusion of the stronger races into the hunting grounds of the Bushmen of Southern Africa. Numerous and wide-spread as these tribes are at the present day, there appears but little doubt that they have all descended originally from the same stock ; the greater or less diversity in the different dialects spoken by them marking the various periods when the offshoots separated from the main trunk ; and these again subdividing into minor branches, which will, when carefully examined, be found to mark, although in a less degree than the great offshoots, by certain degrees of divergence from one another the sequence in which the tribal divisions took place.

The Rev. W. B. Boyce writes that " in the present state of our information, it appears probable that the languages of South Africa may be classed under two divisions or families. The second division comprises the sister dialects spoken by the Kaffir and Bechuana tribes to the east and north of the Cape Colony. That the relationship subsisting between the Kaffir and Sechuana is that of descent from a common parent is evident, not only from the many words common to both, but from an almost perfect identity in the leading principles of grammatical construction.

"Of the two sister languages the Sechuana appears to be by far the most extensively spoken, comprising a variety of dialects only slightly differing from one another. It appears to be a branch of an extensive language spoken through all South Africa from the north-eastern boundary of the Cape Colony to the equator."

“There is reason," writes the Rev. H. H. Dugmore, " from the affinity of language and the similarity of national customs, to believe that the Kaffirs, Fingos, and Bechuana are the offshoots of some common stock ; but the stock itself can be little more than a matter of conjecture until the interior of Eastern Africa shall have been more fully explored and ethnographical researches more extensively prosecuted in relation to this region.

"The variations in dialect among the tribes above mentioned appear generally to have followed the rule of relative geographical situation, the chain of mountains which separates the various tribes of Bechuana from those of Kaffraria marking the respective boundaries of the two great divisions of the language. Each of these comprises several varieties of dialect, which appear to favour the theory that the languages have diverged from their original point of separation in about the same degree that the tribes themselves have done.

"Taking the dialect spoken by the Kaffir border-tribes as the starting point, and proceeding eastwards through the Abatembu and Amampondo till we reach those spoken by the Zulus and Fingos, we find a gradual approximation to some of the dialects of the Basutu and Bechuana tribes. Nor is it an extravagant supposition that the languages may be substantially blended among tribes yet to be discovered."

The Rev. Richard Giddy, who has spent his life among the native tribes, gives the following outline of the divergent character of the language spoken by these natives : " All the pure Kaffir tribes have on the whole the same language, although the variations are so many and so wide as almost to render it a hopeless task to identify the words, or to trace them up to a common origin.

The construction of the various dialects is the same. The concord, or alliteration, or harmony of euphonic sound is found in all, the language being modified or shaped according to sound. The farther north the traveller goes, the rougher and more rugged he finds the language ; the nearer he approaches the southern coast the more musical it becomes, the Sesuto being more musical than the Serolong, and the Kaffir more musical than the Sesuto.

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The southern sounds are deeper and more bass-like than the northern. In the north the S is used, in the south Z. The lighter sounds are in the north, the heavier in the south. Metsi, water, in the north, becomes Manzi in the south. The language is an exceedingly regular one, accommodating itself to the harmony of sound, hence the concord where the noun repeats its prefix in the pronoun, thus giving to the speech a pleasant, mellifluous, and somewhat rhyming character. Where a letter, or a letter-sound, interferes with the musical beauty of the word, it is cast out or elided."

The different clans of the two great branches of this southern family of the Ba-ntu group may be distinguished by the prefix to their tribal appellations, thus those of the Bachoana and Basutu tribes are known by the prefix Ba, while the coast tribes, such as the Amazulu, Amampondo, Amaxosa, etc., have that of Ama, both, however, having the same meaning, viz. those of, the sons of, or the men of.

The northern tribes, of which we shall now treat, belong to the former division, which, although frequently spoken of by some writers under the collective name of Bachoana, or the men who are all equal, is again subdivided into two or three minor groups of tribes, viz. the Bachoana proper, including the Batla-pin, Barolong, etc., speaking the Sechoana and Serolong, and the Basutu whose dialect is called Sesuto. It is to the former of these subdivisions that our present remarks are directed. They lived to the north of the Vaal, and a multitude of their tribes at one time filled the territory of the present province of the Transvaal with a dense population, stretching westward to the border of the Kalahari and in a northerly direction to the lake Ngami.

Before the commencement of the great wars which broke out among these tribes about 1820-21, and subsequently devastated the entire country, numerous groups of tribes were occupying it whose very name long before their close was blotted from the face of the earth, and all their traditions had been lost.

Fortunately in the year 1820 the observant Campbell travelled through the Batlapin territory, and noted down the position in those days of the various tribes which surrounded it, and which, if compared with a list of those at present existing, will show how many of them have disappeared ; thus in the more immediate neighbourhood were the Tamaha, the Barolong, the Batlou, the Bakuena, the Bahurutsi, the Bangwaketse, the Bamangwato, the Batlaru, and the Mampua, to the south-east of the Kalahari.

To the north-east and east the Makalaka, Bapalangi, Mashoona, Bapula, Bapuana, Bapiri, Baadtpu, Mulile, Matshakwa, Morimuzane, Ba-a-tshou, Ba-pugi, Ba-pu, Ba-kohe, Maribana, Babuklola, Maheheru, Baperi, Bachacha, Omaribe, Bamuhopa, Bapuhene, Selutana, Ma-ko-ti, Sebatya, Ba-ha-tya, and Basia.

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To the south-south-east the Bapo, Bamatou, Baliciana, Bahoba, Bapiri, Baklokla, Mulihe, Muhubilu, Mumanyana, Bahoupi, and Bamaliti.

Besides these there were also the Bataung, Bakatla, Batau-ana, Banoga, Bakaa, Batoka, Batlokua, Bakhahela, and Baputi, besides many others.

All these tribes had a distinguishing sign, or emblem, which was called Siboko, from which they derived their various tribal appellations. Thus among the Bachoana, the Fish is the siboko of the clans of the Batlapin, the Crocodile that of the tribes under Sechele and Moshesh, the Lion that of the people under Molitsane, and the Wild Cat those of Sinkoniella, called Ma-Intateesi, from the mother of the last-named chief.

These symbolic emblems in more advanced stages of civilisation would doubtless have become the emblazonments on their tribal standards. Even now each tribe prides itself upon the emblematic sign thus adopted by their remote forefathers.

Mr. Charles Sirr Orpen, who has paid considerable attention to matters connected with these tribes, informed the writer that the general name Bachoana signifies the men who are equals, those who are all the same, and seems to have arisen from the belief that they are all offshoots of one common stem. Early travellers who made inquiries with regard to the various branches of this section of the Bantu race received the answer that they were men who were all equal, or as the natives themselves expressed it, we are all the same, i.e. descended from the same stock. The prefix Ba, as we have before explained, signifies they or those of, the men, sons, or children of.

Frequently the chief, under whom the separation took place, had for his name that of the animal which afterwards became the siboko or glory of his tribe. As native chiefs were in the habit of changing their names at different periods of their lives, it is not clear whether the chief adopted the name of the siboko his people had chosen for their great glory, and thus became far excellence the Mo-kuena or Motaung, the man of the crocodile or the man of the lion, as the case might be, titles of which the great chiefs boast ; or whether the tribe took their siboko from the accidental name of their leader at the time of their separation from the parent branch.

If we are to judge from their other ideas and customs, the former appears the more probable solution of the mystery. With all the head or main tribes the prefix Ba was placed before the name of their siboko, which thus became that of the tribe itself, as —

Ba-letsatsi = the Men of the Sun ;
Ba-pula = the Men of the "Rain ;
Ba-pulana = the Men of the Showers ;
Ba-fukeng = the Men of the Dew, or Mist ;
Ba-tlapin = the Men of the Fish ;
Ba-kuena : = the Men of the Crocodile ;
Ba-noga = the Men of the Serpent ;
Ba-tlaru = the Men of the Python ;
Ba-taung = the Men of the Lion ;
Ba-tlo-kua = the Men of the Wild Cat ;
Ba-tlou = the Men of the Elephant ;
Ba-piri = the Men of the Hyena ;
Ba-kha-tla = the Men of the Baboon ;
Ba-nyati. = the Men of the Buffalo ;
Ba-nuka = the Men of the Porcupine ;
Ba-kubuon=: the Men of the Hippopotamus ;
Ba-haole = the Men of the Rhinoceros ;
Ba-tauana := the Men of the Young Lions ;
Ba-morara = the Men of the Wild- Vine ;
Ba-puti = the Men of the Little Bluebuck ;
Ba-kuru := the Sons of the Corncleaners or Cornshellers ;
while the Ba-rolong take tsipe, iron, for their glory, and are accordingly called Ba-bena-tsipe and Bena-tsipe, the sons of the dancers of iron and the dancers of iron.

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We have already seen that the great cave of a Bushman tribe, and the tribe also living in it, took their name from the great symbol which was therein depicted, and although this representative figure was their pride and their boast, like the flags of more civilised nations or like the war-standards of our Saxon forefathers, the writer has been unable to discover that they evinced towards it any superstitious regard similar to that shown by these northern tribes to their special " glory."

The origin of these observances of the Bachoana is involved in much obscurity and mystery. The natives have either lost the traditions concerning them, or they are known only to a few initiated who will not divulge the hidden mysteries of their race. To swear by the siboko of his tribe is the most solemn oath a native of this group can take. These names also, which are those of their great tribes or families, do not change, while those of the minor subdivisions or clans, but still frequently called tribes, are very variable.

The latter are formed from the names of petty chiefs, who only ruled over portions of one of the great families of the special group to which they belonged, generally from the names of the chiefs under whom the separation from the parent stock took place ; while the former include all the minor subdivisions which are descended from a common parent.

The one, the name for the minor subdivisions, is called Sechaba, and would be applied to such sections of a great sept as the people of Sechele, chief of the northern Bakuena, those of Moshesh, chief of the Bakuena of Basutuland, of Sikoniella, chief of the Batlokua, a branch of the Bapiri, or of Molitsane, the chief of the Bataung, a portion of the Leghoya. If, on the contrary, they speak of the ancient families to which they respectively belong, the word siboko would be used, which signifies literally the Glory, and in such a case the caste, tribe, or family of a people ; thus the name Bamokotedi, the clan to which Moshesh belonged, does not give the title of the great tribe from which they sprang, but merely the name of the chief under whom they became a separate clan.

To speak of their great tribal siboko, it would be necessary to say the glory of the crocodile (kuena), for this was the reptile which they and their forefathers, before any division of the tribe took place, revered, that is they sang the praises of the crocodile, from which circumstance they designated themselves the men of the crocodile. The name of this animal is the greatest oath by which any of their tribe can swear.

They say also, without being able to give a reason why, that it is one of them, their master, their father ; in fact they represent the elongated form of its mouth in marking the ears of their cattle, not only as a distinctive mark for their cattle, but in some measure as a family coat of arms.

Dr. Casalis says that " the Bakuena call the crocodile their father, they celebrate it in their festivals, they swear by it, and make an incision resembling the mouth of this animal in the ears of their cattle, by which they distinguish them from others. The head of the family which ranks first in the tribe receives the title of 'Great Man of the Crocodile.' No one dares to eat the flesh, or clothe himself with the skin of the animal, the name of which he bears. If this animal is hurtful, the lion for instance, it may not be killed without great apologies being made to it and its pardon being asked. Purification is necessary after the commission of such a sacrilege."

Should any of the Bakuena of the north, who reside in a country where many of the rivers swarm with crocodiles, happen to approach one of these great reptiles, Livingstone informs us that they immediately " spit on the ground, and indicate its presence by saying Boleo-kibo, there is sin ; and if a man, either among the Bakuena or Bamangwato, is bitten by a crocodile, or even has had the water splashed over him with its tail, he is expelled his tribe."

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Mr. Thomas Baines whilst hunting through that country had the misfortune to lose one of his companions, who died from the bite of one of these monsters which had seized him by the thigh. Mr. Baines had to carry the corpse of his friend a long distance before he could find a spot where he was allowed to bury it. They imagine that the mere sight of one of these creatures will give inflammation of the eyes, if some charm is not immediately used to prevent its evil influence.

Livingstone also mentions another strange aversion these people have, viz. that though they eat the zebra without hesitation, if a man be bitten by one he is obliged to take his family away to the Kalahari. He imagines that the adoption of tribal sibokos may indicate that in former times they were addicted to animal worship, like the ancient Egyptians.

When wishing to ascertain what tribe they belong to, the question is asked, "What do you dance ?" from which it may be inferred that dancing was also a part of their ancient rites. From this Dr. Livingstone evidently imagines that they have degenerated from some higher type, but to pursue our enquiries from such a point of view would only lead us to unsubstantial and unsatisfactory conclusions, and prevent us from arriving at any correct solution of the question.

All nature tells us in the most unmistakable language that both through long past geological time, as well as the present, everything has been in a state of development and progression ; some forms have become obsolete and extinct, but they have been superseded by others of a higher grade in the scale of existence.

All that we know of the human race from positive facts shows that from the very beginning they have been in this gradual state of progression from the most degraded condition, with a language even more uncouth than that of the Bushman, when they could only exchange the few ideas they possessed by the attempted imitation of natural sounds. All the most eminent students of philology inform us that such must have been the condition of the speech of primeval man, and all history demonstrates to us, if we will but read it rightly, that all the modes of thought, and even religious beliefs, of the present day are but the elaborations and development of others more ancient.

Thus if we would pursue our inquiry with the least hope of arriving at a solution of any portion of the problem of past life upon our earth, we must dismiss from our minds the old idea of the savage races found on it being a degenerated portion of humanity, who have fallen from some previous state of excellence.

The only safe and philosophical course for us to pursue is to take up the reverse of such a position. We shall then see in them people who have been groping darkly onwards for unknown ages, and that, while the more intellectual races of mankind have been progressing in the arts of civilisation, they have preserved in an almost stereotyped form the ideas and superstitions of their remote ancestors at the time when they were first separated from the main current of life and became embayed in the remote portions of the earth, preserving relics of the different stages of progress by which the rude superstitions of the savage became gradually developed to the more elaborate system of animal worship of such nations of antiquity as the Egyptians.

We have already suggested that in all probability it was in a similar manner that the animal- and bird-headed deities of such races had their original germs in the hunting disguises of some primitive race which had manners and customs, mystic dances, and mysteries known only to the initiated, analogous to those of the Bushmen of South Africa in their undisturbed state.

The Bahurutsi, although an offshoot of the Bakuena, do not dance to the Crocodile or Kuena, but to the Baboon. The Rev. Roger Price writes as follows upon this subject : " Tradition says that about the time the separation took place between the Bahurutsi and the Bakuena, baboons entered the gardens of the former and ate their pumpkins before the proper time for commencing to eat the fruits of the new year.

The Bahurutsi were unwilling that the pumpkins which the baboons had broken off and nibbled at should be wasted, and ate them accordingly. This act is said to have led to the Bahurutsi being called Ba-chwene, Baboon-people, which is their siboko to this day, and their having the precedence ever afterwards in the matter of taking the first bite of the new year's fruits." " If this story be the true one," continues Mr. Price, " it is evident that what is now used as a term of honour was once a term of reproach."

The Bakuena too are said to owe the origin of their siboko to the fact that their people once ate an ox which had been killed by a crocodile.

Mr. Price is strongly inclined to think that the siboko of all the tribes was originally a kind of nickname, or term of reproach, but, he adds, " there is a good deal of mystery about the whole thing. The siboko of the Bangwaketse, another branch of the Bakuena, is still the Kuena or Crocodile. The Bamangwato, another offshoot of the same parent stem, however, changed their siboko at the time of the separation from the Bakuena. The chief Mathibe, under whom the separation took place, had for his head wife a woman of the tribe of Seleka, living near the Limpopo. The forbidden animal or siboko of that tribe being the Phuti or Duiker, the Bamangwato adopted that instead of the Kuena."

The greatest oath natives can take is, as already pointed out, that of swearing by the siboko, and also by the great chief or the representative man of the siboko of their tribe.

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Thus the great oath of the Malekutu, or Banuka, is " ka nuka," by the porcupine, because the majority of them sing, to use the consecrated phrase, intimating that they feast, or revere that animal. From this comes the common designation Banuka, those, or the men of the Porcupine, applied to one branch of the Bapiri. When they see anyone maltreat that animal, they afflict themselves, grieve, collect with religious care all its quills, if it has been killed, spit upon them, and rub their eyebrows with them, saying, " they have killed our brother, our master, one of ours, him whom we sing."

They fear they will die if they eat the flesh of one. Nevertheless they believe it to be beneficial for a nursling to introduce near the joints of its body certain parts of the stomach of the porcupine, mixed with the juice of plants, said to possess some virtue equally occult. The mother then gives the child the remainder of this setlari, or medicament, to drink. All the Malekutu venerate their ancestors almost to devotion.

Instead of the porcupine, another branch of the Bapiri, the Bakhabo, revere the monkey, a species however only found to the north, whence their ancestors originally came, and the Bakhatla swear by the baboon. At the new moon the Bapiri stop at home, and do not go out to the fields, acting in this respect like those who sing the sun. This probably indicates some ancient connection between the two tribes. They believe that if they should set about their labour at such a season, the millet would remain in the ground without sprouting, or that the ear would fail to fill, or that it would be destroyed by rust.

The Ba-letsatsi, or the men of the sun, when the brilliant star of day rises in a cloudy heaven do not work, saying that it afflicts their heart. The food prepared the night before is all given to the matrons, or aged women, who alone may touch it, and who give part to the children under their care. On such mornings these people go down in a crowd to the river, there to wash their whole body.

Every one casts to the bottom of the water a stone which they have carried from their hut, and which is replaced by another taken from the bed of the river. On their return to the town after their ablution, the chief kindles a fire at his house, and all his subjects go to get fire from it. This therefore represented a consecrated, or sacred fire, that is the sun, from which all receive their warmth.

After this ceremony begins a general dance in a public place. He who has lost his father raises his left hand towards heaven, on the contrary he who has lost his mother raises his right, while the orphan who has lost both raises neither, but crosses both his hands upon his breast.

This dance is accompanied by a monotonous song, when every one says —
Pina ea Morimo, u ee gae !
Song of the Shades of the Departed (Morimo) go home !
Ki lema ka lefe ?
Which is it that I raise ? (i.e. which hand)
U ee gae ! U ee gae !
Go home ! Go home !

The word gae, translated "home" in the above, is strictly speaking where one has dwelt or where one dwells, thus corresponding with the English word employed.

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Some old men belonging to a branch of the Baputi, the men of the duiker, called Maputi-Maloi, informed the writer that their name had special reference to their tribal siboko, the duiker, in allusion to a custom which they observed at the burial of the great chief of their portion of the tribe. They said, as soon as his death was made known a hunting party was sent in pursuit of one of these representative animals.

When a duiker was thus obtained, it was carefully skinned, and the hide was brought to the place where the dead chief lay ; his body was then enfolded in the skin of the tribal siboko, and in this state committed to the grave with the usual solemnities. One of the chief informants, when questioned as to whether the same customs obtained among those tribes which had a different siboko, stated that he believed they ought to do the same ; but upon the subject being mentioned to the Bakuena chief Mapeli, he affirmed that as far as he knew none of the others had a similar custom.

This therefore must be one exclusively confined to this branch of the Baputi, or if ever such a custom existed among the others, it had evidently fallen into disuse from the impossibility, in many cases, of obtaining the special hides which were necessary for the ceremony. The remainder of the Baputi, if by accident they touched a piece of the skin or bones of a dead duiker, immediately spat upon the ground, and then wiped the eyes both of themselves and every member of their family who was within reach, to prevent them from losing their sight.

The ancestors of Makuana and Molitsane selected the lion as the object of their reverence, which is still held in the same estimation by their descendants ; hence comes the ancient and celebrated designation of Bataung, or the men of the lion, but commonly called Leghoya, a denomination which came from a powerful chief, whose subjects did him the honour to assume his name, although by doing so they did not change their tribal siboko.

Among these people, as among other tribes, there were many who revered some other animal, instead of the lion, but the majority of the nation were Bataung, and of course did not recognise as sacred any other animal than the king of the forest. They never killed one except with extreme regret, with the false fear of losing their sight should they look towards him when he was dead ; but if the thing must be done, they carefully rubbed their eyes with a piece of his skin, in order thereby to avert the imaginary danger as well as to perpetuate a superstitious reverence.

They carefully abstained from touching his flesh as other people did, for they said how could one think of eating his ancestor ? Whilst the powerful chiefs of other tribes were proud to clothe themselves in his skin, which they ostentatiously threw over their shoulders by way of a royal mantle, at Entikoa, the great place of this tribe, and throughout the territories of the Leghoya and Bataung, no one would have dared to use it as fur.

The chief branch of the Bafukeng, itself the royal tribe of the southern Bakuena, was called the Bapatsa, also Mangole and Ba-morara, the first being derived from the name of the great chief under whom they separated from their parent stem, the last from their tribal siboko, hence they were styled the Ba-morara, or the men of the wild vine. M. Arbousset informs us that they were recognised for their veneration of the rietbok, and above all for that which they displayed for the wild vine, called by them morara.

This plant grows without culture in the woods of the Malutis, the stalk, which does not exceed a few inches in diameter, climbs to the top of the highest trees, and overspreading them with its branches, sometimes seems to smother them in its embraces. The Mangole, the Bapatsa clan of the Bafukeng, although they do not disdain to take advantage of its shade, always do so without touching its grapes, still less using its wood for any purpose. Should any other person employ any of it for fuel, although they would not like to go and make application for the fire, they gather the ashes and cinders religiously together, and place them on their foreheads and temples in sign of grief.

From the foregoing facts it would seem possible that the origin of the siboko among these tribes arose from some sobriquet that had been given to them, and that in course of time, as their superstitious and devotional feelings became more developed, these tribal symbols became objects of veneration and superstitious awe, whose favour was to be propitiated or malign influence averted by certain rites and ceremonies, more or less elaborate, with ablutions and purification, with solemn dances and singing, the kindling and distribution of the sacred fire, and placing ashes on the forehead as a sign of grief.

Although at the present time all the great coast tribes are distinguished by the name of some renowned ancestor, there are still traces to be found which seem to indicate that a similar custom once existed among at least a portion of those with the Ama-prefix, of which Ama-langa (the sons of the sun), Ama-zulu (the sons of the heavens), Ama-geba (the sons of the shadows of the setting sun), will be sufficient examples.

It was not only, however, that these tribes of the Bachoana group were distinguished for this peculiar mode of nomenclature combined with superstitious observances, but they were equally characterised by intense love of agricultural pursuits, which formed such a striking trait in the occupations of the Bachoana and Basutu tribes that the early travellers were filled with admiration and astonishment at the wonderful proofs of industry which the extent of the cultivated land surrounding their great towns exhibited.

Some of the latter contained a teeming population of some eight to ten thousand inhabitants, some, in fact, being stated to have held double that number. At the time of Mr. Campbell's visit to Lithako, the great place of the Batla-pin, he remarks that on approaching the town they passed through extensive cornfields spreading out on both sides of the road. Even the Hottentots who accompanied him were amazed at the extent of land under cultivation, never having seen so much before in one place.

The only vegetable productions cultivated by the Bachoana and their forefathers were varieties of the native grain, holcus sorghum, the sweet-reed, the sorghum saccharatum, pumpkins, a small kind of kidney bean, and watermelons, which appeared to be a cultivated variety of the cucumis caffer. Maize or Indian corn was perfectly unknown to them, and was introduced from the east coast (the Portuguese settlements) through the Matabili invasion.

From native tradition, as well as from positive evidence, there can be little doubt that when their fathers first migrated into the country, it was one which was highly adapted for agricultural pursuits, and therefore formed a fitting home for such tribes to settle in. The Batlapin declare that in ancient times there were great floods in the country, and incessant showers which clothed the very rocks with verdure ; and they speak of giant trees and forests which once studded the brows of the Hambana hills and neighbouring plains.

They boasted of the Koeromanie (Kuruman of the English) and other rivers, with their impassable torrents, in which the hippopotami played. In addition to these traditions handed down by their fathers, they had before their eyes at the time of Mr. Moffat's arrival amongst them the fragments of more fruitful years, in the immense number of roots and stumps of enormous trunks of the Acacia Giraffe, which requires an age to become a tree.

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Some of the trunks met with were of such enormous size that he supposed if the time were calculated necessary for their growth, as well as their decay, one might be led to conclude that they must have been in existence several thousand years. ' ' Now, one," Mr. Moffat adds, " is scarcely to be seen raising its stately head above the shrubs."

As according to geological evidence the last extreme in our South African climate was the very opposite to that recorded in the northern hemisphere, viz. a tropical and subtropical one, in lieu of the Arctic severity of the last glacial period of the latter, it may therefore be possible that these traditions may be from some vague recollection of the times when the last tropical rains still lingered about the regions to which their ancestors migrated.

It is certain that the country in question was such as would develop and foster their agricultural proclivities, and therefore induced more settled habits and a concentration of population around favourable localities, which led to the formation of their great agricultural settlements or towns, showing a more advanced state of society than that exhibited by the more primitive kraals of the coast tribes, who, until their contact with the white race, appear to have placed their chief dependence for subsistence on pastoral occupations.

Such an improved mode of life, combined with the industrious habits which are inculcated by the necessary regularity in labours of the field, enabled them to apply their leisure profitably in improving their manufactures, and thus it is that among these tribes not only were their habitations larger and more comfort- able, their towns laid out with greater regularity as well as exceeding all others in magnitude, but the most skilful smiths of all South Africa were found amongst them ; they far excelled all others in their pottery, and their wood-carving, as displayed in the ornamentation of their spoons and various wooden vessels, was unequalled, while even their superstitions had become more elaborated and defined, they having instituted certain symbolic representative figures, called Madula and Setswantu, which they preserved in their huts as their tutelar deities, which were to ensure to their possessors prolificness to their household and general prosperity in their affairs.

There can be little doubt, however, but that this very improvement in their mode of life from the more purely pastoral pursuits of their ancestors tended in the course of long generations to modify very considerably their wandering and warlike propensities ; and as the benefits of peace became every generation more and more apparent, as essentially imperative to enable them to carry out successfully their favourite agricultural pursuits, so it became more and more cultivated by them until ultimately by making a decided impression upon their national character they became, in comparison with the more robust coast tribes, a timid, pusillanimous, vainglorious race, while the latter, although they had not made the advance towards social comfort the Bachoana had done, still retained much of the martial fire and savage energy of their common ancestors.

Thus numerous as the Bachoana had become, they fell an easy prey to every enemy who chose to invade their country, while their accumulated herds afforded the most insatiate marauders ample spoil.

As soon as we commence to investigate the history of these tribes minutely, we discover that they, similar to every other native race we may have to study, are divided into various groups of tribes, and that the members of these groups migrated in a certain sequence, somewhat akin to that we have described in the early movements of the border tribes of the west coast.

The pioneers appear to have been comparatively insignificant tribes, the advanced guard of the still greater body which was following, and which, when it overtook them, swept over them, and reduced the greater portion of the fugitives to a state of vassalage. In order therefore to obtain a clearer view of our subject, we shall divide it into the three following heads, viz. : —

(a) The Pioneer Tribes of the Bachoana in the migration to the Southward.
(b) The Tribes of the Second Period of the Bachoana migration ; and
(c) The great Bakuena Branch, or the Bakone Tribes to the East and North.

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The Pioneer Tribes of the Bachoana in their Migration to the Southward.

Before entering upon an inquiry with regard to the more powerful and numerous tribes of the Bachoana group, it may be as well to investigate, as far as the available materials at our disposal will allow us, the probable relation between several minor tribes which were found fifty or sixty years ago not only along the western border of the area then occupied as Bachoana territory, but scattered in small communities throughout the country itself.

They were evidently in a far more defenceless state than the stronger tribes, and generally in a more degraded condition, many of them being reduced to such a state of abject serfdom that they were perfectly at the command of their exacting and more powerful neighbours. Such a condition would appear to indicate that they are the descendants of a conquered race, who having formed the vanguard of the great southern migration of the Bantu, had occupied the country previous to its invasion by the main body of the Bachoana hordes, who, after a considerable interval, must have followed them, and by whom they and their fathers were brought into the state of subjection in which they were discovered by the early travellers.

These tribes therefore in all probability represent the phase of the earliest intruding Bachoana tribes into the ancient Bushman hunting grounds. And as in every similar instance where other pioneer tribes, comparatively small in number and less warlike in character than those who followed them, have first come in contact with the old hunter race, we shall find that they fraternised more closely with the aboriginal occupiers of the soil, who extended to them a sort of rude hospitality and showed towards them a friendliness of disposition in marked contrast to the hostile and vindictive feelings which were subsequently aroused by the monopolising and grasping appropriation of the finest portions of their country by the formidable multitudes of armed warriors who followed with their numerous herds upon the trail of the pioneers.

These last may now be considered under the following sub- divisions, viz. : —

1. The Leghoya, called by different writers and authorities Ba-coija, Gohas, Goes, Coija, and Lehoya. Of this tribe we shall treat more fully when speaking of the migration of the tribes to the south of the Vaal. They evidently retained possession of their herds of cattle for a longer period than any of the earlier tribes, gradually migrating to the southward and crossing the Vaal with them, until they were attacked there by the emigrant Bakuena, and reduced to a state of extreme want and misery.
2. The Bakalahari, occupying the eastern confines of the Kalahari, whither they retired upon the intrusion of the more powerful Bachoana tribes.
3. The Balala, scattered through the less inhabited portions of the Bachoana territory.
4. The Bachoana Bushmen, living in the same manner.

We will therefore now, omitting the consideration of the Leghoya for the present, pass to that of the second tribe above enumerated.

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2. — The Bakalahari.

These are supposed to be the oldest of the Bachoana tribes, and are said to have once possessed enormous herds of cattle. They were driven into the desert by a fresh migration of their own nation, who were evidently stronger and more warlike than themselves. Here, living for centuries on the same plains with the Bushmen, subjected to the same influences of climate, enduring the same thirst, and subsisting on similar food, they seem to supply a proof that locality is not always sufficient to account for difference in races.

Amid all their poverty these Bakalahari retain in undying vigour the Bachoana love for agriculture and domestic animals. They are a timid race, and in bodily development often resemble the aborigines of Australia. They have their legs and arms, and large protruding abdomens, caused by the coarse and indigestible food they eat.

The Bushmen live in the Kalahari from choice, the Bakalahari from compulsion. Livingstone, in comparing the two races, states that the Bushmen are distinct in language, race, habits, and appearance ; and are the only real nomads of the country. They never cultivate the soil, or rear any animals save wretched dogs. They are intimately acquainted with the habits of the game, and chiefly subsist on their flesh, eked out by the roots and beans and fruits of the desert. Those who inhabit the hot sandy plains have generally thin wiry forms, and are capable of great exertion and of severe privations.

Such then are the companions of the Bakalahari, whilst the Kalahari, which affords them shelter and protection, is also one of the last places of refuge for the hapless and fast disappearing Bushman race. This great area has been called a desert because, though intersected by beds of ancient rivers, it contains no running water and very little in wells. Far from being destitute of vegetation, it is covered with grass and creeping plants. The quantity of grass which grows in this remarkable region is astonishing, even to those who are familiar with India.

It usually rises in tufts with bare spaces between, or the intervals are occupied by creeping plants, the roots of which, being buried far beneath the soil, feel little the effects of the scorching sun. The number of these which have tuberous roots is very great, a structure which is intended to supply moisture during droughts. Besides there are large patches of bushes, and even trees. It is remarkably flat, and prodigious herds of antelopes, which require little or no water, roam over the trackless plains. The beds of the former streams contain much alluvial soil, which being baked hard by the burning sun, rain water in some places stands in pools for several months of the year.

In 1813 the name of the chief of the Bakalahari was Leevekue, who resided principally in the valley called Chue. They neither had, nor in the situation in which they were placed, could have cattle or sheep. They acknowledged themselves dependent to a certain degree on the neighbouring chiefs. They hunted with dogs belonging to them, and the skins of the animals they killed they were obliged to bring to them. If they killed an elephant, the tusks had to be carried to their feudal masters. They not only used the assagai in hunting, but also like the Bushmen dug deep holes in the ground to take animals.

They were at that time under the protection of Mothibi and Lahesi, the chief of the Batlaro, in case of an attack ; but they were discountenanced from having intercourse with any tribes nearer the Cape Colony who brought articles of trade. When called out to assist in plundering expeditions against their neighbours, all they captured was handed over to their superiors, who bestowed upon them what they thought proper. They were not permitted to wear jackals' skins, or any dress which indicated rank or fortune ; they could only use such skins as were not worn by the rich. Though numerous, they lived in a scattered manner. A considerable number however remained with their chief.

In 1820 these natives were found to be more numerous than was expected, although they lived in a very scattered way over the desert, and generally fled upon the approach of strangers intruding on their realm. The animals which they hunted were principally elephants, giraffes, elands, steenboks, and quaggas, while the bow and arrow were their principal weapons.

These natives, according to Mr. Freeman, have a daring method of capturing lions. He says that he was assured by the missionary Lemue that they have been known to seize a lion bodily and stab him to death. The lions were not unfrequently extremely dangerous, and from having become accustomed to human flesh they would not willingly eat anything else. When a neighbourhood became infested by these man-eaters, the inhabitants would determine on the measures to be adopted to rid themselves of the nuisance ; then forming themselves into a band, they would proceed to search for their royal foe, and beard him in his lair.

Standing close to one another, the lion would make a spring upon one of the party, every man of course hoping that he might escape in the attack, then others would instantly dash forward and seize his tail, lifting it up close to the body with all their might, thus not only astonishing the animal but rendering his efforts powerless for the moment, while others closed in with their spears and stabbed the monster through and through. This was done not for the exciting pleasure of a lion hunt, or as an exhibition of prowess, but merely to rid the vicinity of their villages of a dreadful enemy.

Water was frequently very scarce in this inhospitable region, and the women as frequently had to carry it considerable distances. When they wished to draw water they put it into ostrich eggshells, twenty or thirty of which were carried upon their backs in a bag or net. It was however the great scarcity of surface water which rendered this vast wild such a bulwark of defence against any chance of successful invasion from without. But when befriended by either the Bushmen or the Bakalahari, this so-called desert, besides supporting multitudes of animals, has proved a refuge to many a fugitive tribe, when their lands have been overrun by the ravaging hordes of Matabili warriors.

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This fraternising of the Bushmen and Bakalahari, without amalgamating by intermarrying, is certainly very interesting ; and it is here therefore, in the still almost unknown region of the Kalahari, that these distinct relics of a long-forgotten past are still found in juxtaposition, viz. the scattered tribes of ancient Bushmen, who are undoubtedly the representatives of the true aborigines of the southern portion of the African continent, and who must have gradually migrated thitherward as the severity of the last Antarctic climate which visited this part of the world, equally as gradually ameliorated ; and these Bakalahari, who are the descendants of the remnants of those tribes which formed the first wave of Bachoana emigration in the same direction.

The reality of the previous migration of these earlier tribes is proved not only by the existence of the Bakalahari and of those presently to be mentioned, the Balala, but also that of two well-marked grades — they might almost be termed castes, so clearly and so strongly defined are these two divisions — into which the members of the various tribes are separated, that distinctly indicate the presence of the descendants of not only a conquering but a conquered race also amongst them.

Natives of the lower grade were despised by those of the higher, and one of the latter intermarrying with one of the former would certainly have lost caste in the eyes of his more exclusive countrymen.

This therefore accounts for the kind of feudal system which Moffat states prevailed among the Bachoana tribes. There are, he writes, two grades, the rich, who are hereditary chiefs, and the poor. The latter continue in the same condition, and their lot is a comparatively easy kind of vassalage. Their lives are something like those of their dogs, hunger and idleness, but they are the property of their respective chiefs, and their forefathers have from time immemorial been at the mercy of their lords. Keeping this in view, we shall better understand the true condition of the scattered remnants of the people who come next under consideration.

3. — The Balala or Poor Ones, or the Sons of Slaves.

These people, Moffat considers, were once inhabitants of towns, and have been permitted or appointed to live in country places for the purpose of procuring skins of wild animals, honey, and roots for their respective chiefs. The number of these country residents was increased by the innate love of liberty, and the scarcity of food in towns or within the boundaries to which they were confined by want of water and pasture.

These again formed themselves into small communities, though of the most temporary character, their calling requiring migration, and they having no cattle of any description. Preferring the liberty of the desert, they would make any sacrifice to please their often distant superiors rather than be confined to the irksomeness of a town life, to which such is their aversion that, as Mr. Moffat states, he has known chiefs take armed men and travel a hundred miles into desert places, in order to bring back Balala whom they wished to assist in watching and harvesting the gardens of their wives. In such seasons they will frequently wander about, and fix their domiciles in the most desert and unfrequented spots, to escape this easy but to them galling duty.

Though in general they are able to state to what chief or tribe they belong, yet from want of intercourse and from desolating wars, great numbers have become from their isolated position independent. They lead a hungry life, being dependent on the chase, wild roots, berries, locusts, and indeed everything eatable that comes within their reach ; and when they have a more than usual supply they will bury it in the earth from their superiors, who are in the habit of taking what they please.

Resistance on their part would be instantly avenged by the deadly javelin. When hunting parties go out to kill game, the Balala men and women are employed to carry grievous burdens of flesh to the rendezvous of the hunters, in return for which they receive the offals of the meat, and are made drudges as long as the party remains. They are never permitted to wear the furs of jackals and other animals they obtain.

The flesh they may eat, but the skins are conveyed to the towns, for which they obtain a small piece of tobacco or an old spear or a knife. Indeed all the valuable skins of the larger animals, which they sometimes procure by hunting and pitfalls, as well as the better portions of the meat, they have to yield to their masters, except when they succeed in secreting the whole for their own use. From the famishing life to which they are exposed, their external appearance and stature are precisely to the Bachoana what the Bushman is to the Hottentot.

Their sole care is to keep body and soul together ; to accomplish this is with them their chief end. They are compelled to traverse the wilds often to a great distance from their village. On such occasions fathers and mothers, and all who can bear a burden, often set out for weeks at a time, and leave their children to the care of two or more infirm old people.

The infant progeny, some of whom are beginning to lisp, while others can just master a whole sentence, and those still further advanced, romping and playing together, the children of nature, through the livelong day, become habituated to a language of their own ; and thus from this infant Babel proceeds a dialect composed of a host of mongrel words and phrases joined together without rule, and in the course of a generation the entire character of the language is changed.

Their servile state, their scanty clothing, their exposure to the inclemency of the weather, and their extreme poverty, have, as may be easily conceived, a deteriorating influence on their character and condition. They are generally less in stature, and though not deficient in intellect, the life they lead gives a melancholy cast to their features, and from constant intercourse with beasts of prey and serpents in their path, as well as exposure to harsh treatment, they appear shy and have a wild and frequently quick suspicious look.

Nor can this be wondered at, when it is remembered that they associate with savage beasts, from the lion that roams about by night and day, to the deadly serpent which infests their path, keeping them always on the alert during their perambulations.

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The Tamahas, or the Red People.

Mr. Campbell informs us that in his first journey in 1812-13 from Lithako to Malapitze, the first people he met with after passing a couple of Batlapin outstations were some wandering Bushmen. Then at a place called Marabe they met a small kraal of Bachoana Bushmen, which had the appearance of extreme wretchedness. On the fourth day's journey they came to the hills which divide the Bachoana from the Korana countries. Immediately at the mouth of the pass was a small kraal of the Tamahas, or red people, who on the approach of the travellers fled to the top of a hill behind the kraal ; but seeing Batlapin in the company, the men came down and spoke with them.

Their appearance indicated wretchedness in the extreme. Their dwellings were so low as to be hardly visible among the bushes till quite close to them. They were the shape of half a hen's egg, with the open part exposed, an arrangement which must have occasioned considerable inconvenience in rainy weather, unless they were able to turn the enclosed side to the storm. They were so covered with dirt, mixed with spots of very red paint, that it appeared probable none of them had any part of their bodies washed since they were born.

These people appear to have intermarried so much with the Bushmen, that at the beginning of the present century they were described as a mongrel race between the Bachoana and Bushmen, and they painted themselves red, from which circumstance they in all probability obtained the distinctive name of red people. Their houses were made of rushes like those of the Koranas, but were better constructed and kept cleaner. They were not so tall as the Batlapin of Lithako. They had cattle, sheep, and goats, and lived together in towns, but not so large as those of the Batlapin. They planted millet and pumpkins. The nearest of their kraals in 1812-13 to the Batlapin were at a distance of four days' journey from Lithako. At that time the name of their chief was Keebe.

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Such then is a description of these people, who were a branch of the Balala, and who were at one time found scattered over different portions of the country. Molehabangwe, the chief of the Batlapin and father of Mothibi, used to employ them on his marauding commandos for the capture of cattle, when they became so well trained to this employment that they commenced capturing cattle on their own account.

These, Molehabangwe allowed them to keep, after which they became an independent tribe, but remained faithful allies of the Batlapin. They lived on the banks of a river which ran into the Vaal from the northward, and which was probably either the present Schoon Spruit, or Mooi River. In 1820 they were so noted for their boldness and fierceness that no other nation dared to attack them ; they were nevertheless reported to be friendly to strangers.

They spoke the Sechoana language, but many of them could speak those of both the Korana and Bushmen. They possessed abundance of cattle, but sowed no corn like the other Bachoana tribes, which deficiency, however, they supplied by their great expertness in hunting. With the skins of the animals killed they were able to purchase grain from their neighbours.

They were formerly a poor scattered people like the Bachoana Bushmen, but they formed a union with each other, probably under the guidance of some more warlike and gifted chief than ordinary, whose name has been lost. They joined their neighbours, as we find was the case with the Batlapin chief Molehabangwe, in their cattle-lifting expeditions, and as on these occasions they acted with courage and fierceness they were often invited to lend assistance to others.

Thus from their continued successes they acquired in the end more cattle than most of the other surrounding tribes. At one time, however, the Koranas attacked one of their captains, named Inkapetze, and carried off all his cattle. In 1820 they were under several chiefs, the principal of whom was named Takiso.

To assist them in securing game, extensive series of pitfalls used to be excavated by them. One of these consisted of twelve pits, arranged in the form of a crescent, each being about twenty feet long, ten broad, and five deep, besides the height of the earth thrown out of them.

At the bottom of each large pit, there were two rows of smaller ones, nearly filled up. The design of these large excavations was to ensnare game. Laborious they must have been, considering the feebleness of the instruments employed, a sharpened stick of hard wood and a wooden dish. It is probable that in 1820 they had been dug forty or fifty years, as a karree tree of that age was growing from the bottom of one of them.

Up to the present time the writer has been unable to trace what became of the remnant of this particular branch of the Balala after the Mantatee invasion, or still more terrible and devastating irruption of the Matabili. During the entire time in which he was engaged in the Free State he was not able to discover a single representative of this tribe, and all native tradition with regard to them appears to have been blotted out of the memory of those who fled across the Vaal to seek refuge in the rugged mountain ranges to the south.

It is therefore not improbable that the Tamahas were entirely broken up, and the scattered fugitives have since found shelter by amalgamating with other branches who were fortunately living farther to the westward, and nearer the confines of the Kalahari.

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4. — The Bachoana Bushmen.
These people would seem to differ from the Balala in having a greater admixture of Bushman blood, caused doubtless by more frequent intercourse with the original proprietors of the soil than any of the other tribes of Bachoana origin.

Travelling as far to the northward as 26° south latitude, Mr. Campbell found in 1820 that there was a mongrel race called Bachoana Bushmen, whose little kraals were scattered over the countries through which he passed. This circumstance explains the fact mentioned by Livingstone in his travels, when he states that at a place called Mathlo-ganyana, which appears to be still farther north, he found many families of Bushmen unlike those on the plains of the Kalahari, who are generally of short stature and light yellow colour, that is of purer breed.

These were tall strapping fellows of dark complexion. In making these remarks he has evidently either been unaware of the existence, or lost sight of this mixed race mentioned by Mr. Campbell, and puts down the great physical dissimilarity not to its true cause, the intermixture of blood, but to heat with moisture, insuring the deepest hue.

We have already seen that a mixed breed sprang up between the advancing Abatembu and the Tambuki Bushmen on the north-eastern frontier of the Cape Colony, and as we proceed we shall discover that another similar mixed race originated in the Zuurveld from intermarriages between the pioneer Coast Kaffirs and the aboriginal inhabitants whom they found occupying the country.

And this we shall find has ever been the case at all points where the stronger races have come in contact with the Bushmen, and as long as the latter remained in the ascendency fraternisation and intermarriage ensued, but the case was reversed as soon as the intruders gained the upper hand, when persecution and annihilation followed.

Mr. Campbell informs us that some of these Bachoana Bushmen were subject to Mothibi, the Batlapin chief, and were bound to bring him all the jackal-skins they could procure, while all the rest of the game they could use as they pleased. On the 30th of April 1820 this traveller passed many old cattle enclosures built of stone, some parts as neatly done as if they had been erected by European workmen.

From this description of the skill shewn in the erection of these walls, it would seem probable that the town which once stood on the spot mentioned of which the remains of the ruined kraals marked the different divisions, may have belonged to the old Leghoya race, as some of the ruins of their ancient towns are to be still seen near' the Marikwa. The one mentioned by Campbell must have been very extensive, the ruins occupying a length of two miles, and they were also of considerable breadth.

In the same locality two or three villages of Bachoana Bushmen were found, "a people greatly despised by all the surrounding tribes." Sometimes these unfortunates were reduced to such straits for food, that their children were met collecting gum from the mimosa trees in order to sustain life.

During the return journey several other villages of these poor people were passed. The inhabitants met with were complete exhibitions of starvation, and seemed to be under considerable apprehensions for their safety. Their men had been absent on a hunt for three weeks, and of course the situation of the unfortunate females left behind must have been very distressing. Their black fingers appeared as hard as bones, and were probably rendered so by digging roots out of the ground for food.

These Bachoana Bushmen must at that time have been very numerous, from the number met with where there was no beaten track. Hence it may be inferred that whatever direction had been chosen, an equal number of their villages would have been found. One of these contained seventy huts. They spoke the same language as the surrounding nations, by whom they were despised on account of their poverty.

Like most of the Bushmen of the south, they literally possessed nothing. Having thus drawn together as much information as we have found at our disposal upon the subject of the condition of the minor pioneer tribes, we will pass on to the consideration of those more powerful clans which appear to have followed on the trail of the former, thus forming what might be termed the second tidal wave of the Bachoana emigration.


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THE TRIBES OF THE SECOND PERIOD OF THE BACHOANA MIGRATION


There is much obscurity not only between the connection of the tribes forming this group, but also between them and those of the previous one, as well as between either the one or the other and those which follow of the great Bakuena or Bakone group.

The first intruders would appear to have come in three bodies : the Leghoya in successive stages, passing the sources of the Marikwa, the site of old Lithako, and thence to the south-east towards the 'Gij-'Gariep ; the Bakalahari appear to have kept more to the westward of this line ; while the ancestors of the Balala and Tamaha seem to have followed the steps of the Leghoya, and spread over the more central portions of the same area.

All these migrating clans fraternised in a more or less intimate degree with the primitive inhabitants, and the scattered hordes of Bachoana Bushmen were the result of this connection. And still the way in which these kindred tribes are connected is lost, and no inquiry has enabled us to discover the missing connecting links, nor the relation between them and those of which we are about to treat.

All native traditions, however, affirm that the whole of these tribes came from the north, and there seems little room to doubt that they actually did so. Some of the Basutu clans have a tradition to the effect that in the land whence their remote ancestors came the sun shone on the opposite shoulder to what it does in the present day, evidently indicating a shadowy recollection of the remote period when their forefathers were still north of the equator.

But what is still stranger, all those native authorities of whom the writer has sought information upon the subject have declared that before coming from the north, the place whence the first people came was the east, some indefinite place towards the sun-rising.

And by a striking coincidence the Basutu, when they were first visited by Europeans, were found manufacturing and wearing the same conical-shaped hats as those worn by some of the nations of the east, and cultivating the Imphi (Sorghum saccharatum), which they say was given at the same time as the millet to the first man and woman, a plant which has also grown from time immemorial in China.

Some of the manners and customs of these people are identical with those of members of the Papuan race now inhabiting isolated island groups in the eastern seas. They also maintain that when the first man and woman made their appearance, Bushmen were already in existence, and were found in every country through which their forefathers migrated.

The traditions of these South African tribes are supported both by those of Central Africa, quoted by Mr. Stanley, and those obtained from the old Korana people.

These last assert that their forefathers were driven from the central intra-lacustrine regions of Africa by tribes similar to if not the identical Bachoana tribes with whom they again came in contact when they and their fathers once more migrated to the north-east, to the north of the Vaal ; and Stanley states that there is one special tradition among the central tribes, in which it is affirmed that they migrated into that region some centuries ago, when their forefathers found it unoccupied, that is, we should presume, there was nothing found in it but herds of game and very probably a few scattered hordes of the pigmy hunters, of whom, as usual, no account was taken.

The concurrent testimony thus afforded by these several traditions, obtained from widely separated and independent sources, would seem to shadow forth that in Central Africa also there were successive waves of migration, the one being formed by the Bantu tribes, which drove the Hottentots before them, until the latter diverged towards the ocean on the side of the setting sun.

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This after an apparent lull was succeeded by a second, which brought the present intra-lacustrine tribes into the country they now occupy ; while the foremost wave was continuing its onward progress towards the south. This wave broke again into others, at first dividing into two great branches, one rolling impetuously along the coast line, and driving farther and farther into the more central regions the other, which reached as far south as the Vaal in successive wavelets.

The first of these we have already considered ; and the second, like the first, might be divided into minor sections, which were afterwards again subdivided into several branch tribes, the most ancient divisions being those of the Barolong and Batlapin.

It has been asserted by some that the pioneer tribes, the Batlapin, and the Barolong, are all offshoots of the same stem, viz. of the Bachoana proper. If this be in reality the case, the separation must have been an ancient one, as the dialects of the language vary considerably. It is therefore probable that when the pioneer and Batlapin tribes parted from the main trunk and proceeded onward, a separation had already taken place, at a still more remote date, between that trunk and the one of the great Bakuena family speaking another variety of the original language, called Sesuto.

The tribes we have at present to consider are the Batlapin and the Barolong.

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I. — The Batlapin, or the Men of the Fish.

The Rev. Richard Giddy imagines that the name Batlapin, or as they are sometimes called Batlapi, the men of the Fish, perhaps the Fishers, was probably derived from the fact of their living at some former time near the lakes in the interior.

The first European visitor to this tribe appears to have been one well calculated to impress the native mind with feelings of terror at the apparition of a white face among them. This man was Jan Bloem the elder, who made his appearance with his adherents for the purpose of plunder. Previous to this time the Koranas had given these people the name of Briquas. Shortly afterwards old Adam Kok, the original founder of the Griquas, arrived during one of his hunting expeditions at Lithako, and checked for a time the atrocities of the freebooter Bloem and his Korana followers.

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In 1801 the Batlapin were visited by the government commissioners Truter and Somerville, accompanied by Mr. Borcherds, for the purpose of establishing friendly relations between them and the Cape authorities, with the hope of opening up a trade with them by means of bartering in cattle. About the same time Messrs. Edwards and Kok settled there for the same purpose, under the cover of missionary enterprise.

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Dr. Lichtenstein seems to have been the first who entered their country for the sole purpose of scientific exploration. Dr. Cowan and Captain Donovan were the next to follow, but although Moffat states that the whole party perished of fever in the region of the Limpopo, a considerable amount of mystery hangs over their fate.

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In 1812 Mr. Burchell extended his scientific researches to the north of the Batlapin, and in 1812-13 the Reverend J. Campbell travelled as far as Old Lithako, at that time the great place of Molehabangwe, and in February 1816 the missionaries Evans, Hamilton, and Edwards arrived among them. Mr. Campbell's second visit followed in 1820, and Mr. George Thompson was fortunately present amongst them in the eventful year 1823.

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The weapons of the Batlapin at this period were a bow and quiver of poisoned arrows hanging from the shoulder, a shield with a number of assagais attached, and a club or battle-axe. These people were found to be more advanced than the Kaffir nations east of the Colony. Their huts were not only larger and more carefully constructed, but the walls were painted and adorned with various patterns.

Mr. Campbell found that the wife of Salakutu had decorated the walls of her house with a series of paintings, being rough representations of the camelopard, rhinoceros, elephant, lion, tiger, and steenbok. These were done in white and black paint. On the occasion of his second visit Mr. Campbell saw some similar paintings among the Bahurutsi, in one of the chief houses at Kurrechane ; and recently a similar instance of wall decoration has been seen among the Basutu, in Basutuland, where a house was at one time ornamented with the figures of animals in like manner.

As these cases are unique in the several tribes where they occur, viz. among the Batlapin, the Bahurutsi, and Bakuena of Moshesh, all widely separated from each other, and whose national mode of painting, when they indulge in it, is confined to the representations of lines, spots, lozenges, curves, circles, and zigzags, it becomes an interesting subject of speculation whether the attempt to represent animal life in these isolated cases was a spontaneous development in the artists whose handiwork they were, or whether, as was frequently the case in those days, these men had taken Bushman wives, or were half-caste descendants of Bushman mothers, and thus the hereditary talent displayed itself in their new domiciles among people of either the Bachoana or Basutu race.

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The Batlapin, as well as the other kindred tribes, were in the habit of painting their bodies, each tribe having adopted some particular fashion or colour of its own. The fashionable colour of the Batlapin being red, their faces were frequently painted red, and sometimes streaked with white in a regular way. Their hair, after being anointed with grease, was thickly powdered with titaniferous iron ore, which made their heads shine with a bright metallic lustre, that was greatly admired.

They obtained copper and iron from some nation beyond them. The people of Lithako proved themselves ingenious, from the articles they manufactured from these metals, such as axes, adzes, knives, spears, and bodkins from iron, and rings for the legs, arms, fingers, and ears from copper. Their cloaks were made and sewn as well as could be done by Europeans, being formed of about forty cat-skins most dexterously put together.

The immense amount of ground brought under cultivation around all their towns characterised them as an agricultural people. The plants which they principally cultivated were the millet, a particular kind of bean, and an insipid sort of watermelon, which was probably the wild melon of the country cultivated. Zealous, however, as they were in the cultivation of their lands, it was difficult, owing to their attachment to the customs of their ancestors, to persuade them to adopt any improvement, and when urged to plant wheat by some of the early missionaries they replied that their fathers were wiser than themselves, and yet were content to do as they did, and for this cause they regarded any innovation as an insult to their ancestors.

As an illustration of the prevailing sentiment even among such an agricultural people as the' Bachoana, and much more so in the pastoral races of South Africa, the following answer given by one of these Batlapin to Mr. Campbell on his inquiring what they thought man was made for ? will serve. To go on plundering expeditions against other people was the ready reply. The history of not only the Batlapin, but of all the other stronger native races, is but one continued demonstration of this creed.

The pedigree of the Batlapin chiefs takes us back eleven generations from the present paramount chief. They are all said to have descended from the race of Phuduhuchoana. This Phuduhuchoana, or the Steenbok, was the great ruler of their tribe at the time when they separated from the parent stem. The names of the chiefs, however, who formed the connecting links between him and Moduana are now lost, and the old chroniclers of the tribe are only able to assert that all their great families have descended from him.

All that is now known of the first five chiefs after Moduana is that they succeeded one another. Mpete, the son of Mamai, who ought to have assumed the tribal authority upon the death of his father, was deposed by his younger brother Morakanela, who made himself chief in his stead.

We find that similar occurrences constantly took place in the line of succession of the paramount chiefs of the Batlapin. Mpete's descendants fell into the rank of secondary chiefs, while Motole succeeded his father Morakanela. Nothing has been recorded of the reign of either the one or the other, but upon the death of Motole there was another disputed succession. A civil war broke out between the rival claimants, Seatle, the rightful heir by tribal custom, and Mokgosi (the War-cry or Alarm), when Seatle was conquered and deposed by his younger brother, who after the birth of his son Mashoe obtained the cognomen of Ra-Mashoe (the Father of Ugliness) on that account.

From the history of the tribes at this period it would seem that the Barolong considered themselves higher in rank, and consequently an older tribe than the Batlapin. The latter had, however, evidently commenced their migration towards the south before the others ; but in the days of Motole or Mokgosi they had again been overtaken by the Barolong, who being of higher rank claimed tribute of these native voortrekkers.

During the chieftainship of Mokgosi, the Barolong chief demanded from him the breast of every ox killed by his people, the brisket being considered among the native races as food which ought to be set apart for the special use of chiefs, a demand, therefore, which if complied with would have been a virtual acknowledgment of the dependence of himself and his people on the Barolong. It being persisted in, the indignant Mokgosi at length replied, "Am I then your servant ? "

As a necessary consequence a war followed this refusal, in which the Batlapin chief and his people were defeated and so broken up that they were scattered and driven to three different places at considerable distances from each other. It was after this victory that the Barolong moved to the southward, and finally settled at Taung.

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There seems little doubt that before this time the Batlapin must have been both small in numbers and insignificant in influence, as no other tradition previous to their dispersion by the Barolong has been preserved. From the time of their defeat to the death of Mokgosi they evidently remained in a most depressed condition. Even during a part, at least, of the rule of his successor they had no fixed place of residence, but roamed about in search of grass and water. The fear of the encroaching Barolong kept them ever on the alert, and prevented them from making any permanent settlement.

MashoeN (Ugliness), who succeeded to the chieftainship upon the death of his father, seems to have lived about 1750-1760. From his time the history of his tribe is tolerably complete. It was during one of his migrations that he and his people arrived unexpectedly near the great place of Tao, the Lion, the warlike chief of the Barolong, who was then residing at Taung, or the Place of the Lion, from which circumstance it has ever since retained the name, although its inhabitants have since changed several times. The Batlapin, finding themselves thus suddenly and so undesirably in close proximity to their formidable neighbour, naturally felt alarmed lest some treacherous attack might be made upon them.

Notes: The names given to their children by the Batlapin, or assumed by the latter at the time of undergoing the rite of circumcision or upon arriving at the age of puberty, had frequently reference to some occurrence at the time of the birth of the child or conditions which surrounded it.

Ever on the qui vive, as it was necessary for all natives to be in those days, Mashoe, their chief, determined to discover if possible by an ingenious artifice whether any such intention was entertained against him. For this purpose, putting on a common kaross and feigning deafness and a certain degree of mental imbecility, he entered the Barolong town as a common Motlapin to discover whether the Barolong were friendly or not.

To avoid the possibility of detection, he took advantage of the absence from their own camp of all the young Batlapin warriors, who had been sent away for the purpose of hunting. On arriving at the enclosures of the great-place, several of the Barolong met him, to whom on their addressing him as they led him to their chief, he merely replied with a vacant stare, shaking his head and pointing to his ears.

By retaining wonderful imperturbability of countenance, and never appearing to notice them unless they put their hands upon him or shook him, they were completely thrown off their guard, and looking upon him as a nonentity, amused themselves with his apparent stupidity ; and then at last commenced discussing their plans in his presence without reserve.

By this means he learnt that Tao and his people had formed the resolution of massacring both him and his tribe during the course of the following night. The Batlapin quarters were to be surrounded by the Barolong braves, and ere the day broke their camp was to be stormed and all its inhabitants were to be indiscriminately butchered. Having possessed himself of this important information, he carelessly sauntered back to his own encampment.

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On the return of the young men of the tribe he informed them of the meditated treachery. Immediately after nightfall, he ordered a bleating goat to be tied fast to one of the bushes, that its continued restlessness might delude the Barolong. Then, according to his orders, his people at once packed up their baggage with secrecy and dispatch, and he and they, together with their coveted cattle, cautiously set out on a long night march, leaving the bleating goat and the deserted cantonment behind them.

They were already some miles on their way when the Barolong, ignorant that the place was already evacuated, surrounded it, taking up their appointed positions, and awaited the dawn of day as the signal for the general assault. The patiently looked-for sign at last made its appearance, already in imagination their sleeping victims and the spoil of cattle were in their grasp, the preconcerted rush was made, when to their dismay the restless goat alone was found, while every other portion of the camp was deserted and empty !

Determined however not to be thwarted, they pursued the retreating Batlapin with all possible speed. Mashoe, anticipating such a result, laid a strong ambuscade in their path. Into this, in their eagerness to overtake their despised but sharp-witted foes, they heedlessly fell, and suddenly found themselves attacked on every side. Taken thus unawares, they were defeated with heavy loss, and in their turn had to take to flight. In the pursuit many of the fugitive Barolong were slain ; and Tao, the Lion, abandoned his great-place Taung shortly afterwards.

This success was the first step which raised the Batlapin from the state of depression and semi-subjection to which they had been reduced by the more powerful and victorious Barolong. Mashoe died without leaving any male issue by his great wife or the wife of the first house.

Manaka, his eldest daughter of that house, therefore asserted her right to appoint his successor. In doing so she disinherited his eldest son Lekoe, the offspring of the second house, by passing him over and selecting Molehabangwe, the eldest son of the third house by Mashoe's wife Pikwane, to rule in his stead, declaring that her choice had been guided by the fact that when Lekoe had persistently treated her with disrespect, Molehabangwe had ever shown her a brotherly regard.

The selection of Manaka appears to have been a judicious one, as Molehabangwe is said to have been, as a native chief, superior as a statesman and a warrior to many of his compeers, and he was also noted for his kindness to strangers. He appears to have been the first Batlapin chief who established himself at Lithako.

As his government became more settled, the scattered remnants of his tribe gathered round him, and notwithstanding that they were on several occasions nearly ruined by the pertinacious attacks of the marauding Koranas, they had nevertheless increased so in number that the commissioners Truter and Somerville, when they visited him at Lithako in 1801, were not a little astonished to find so large and populous a town in such a remote part of the world. The number of houses they estimated to be between two and three thousand, and that of the population, men, women, and children, from ten to fifteen thousand. The place was surrounded by several large tracts of land, laid out and cultivated like so many gardens.

The house of the chief was built in a circular form, and was about sixteen feet in diameter. The bottom part to the height of four feet from the ground was of stone laid in clay, and wooden spars were erected at certain distances. On the east side of the circle about a fourth part of the house was open, the other three-fourths entirely closed. A round pointed roof covered the whole in the form of a tent ; it was well thatched with long reeds or the straw of the holcus. From the centre to the back of the house there was a circular apartment with a narrow entrance into it, where the head of the family took his nightly rest, the remainder occupying the more open portion.

All the houses were surrounded with palisades, and the space between these and the dwelling served as a granary and store for their grain and pulse. The receptacles for corn were constructed in the form of enormous oil jars of baked clay, the capacity of each being at least two hundred gallons ; they were supported on tripods composed of the same material, which raised them about nine inches from the ground. The upper edges of the jars were from five to six feet from the ground, and they were covered with a round straw roof erected on poles.

Old Lithako took its name from the numerous ruins of cattle kraals and stone fences on the neighbouring hills, the word meaning walls. They are supposed to have been built about the days of Tlou (the Elephant), one of the greatest of the Barolong chiefs. The Batlapin were not the builders. They were at the time of Tlou a comparatively insignificant tribe, which had been forced to become tributary to him. It was at his death that they threw off the Barolong yoke, and gradually rose to influence and fame.

Mr. Campbell, who visited Old Lithako in 1820, believed that the ancient Bahurutsi once lived in the neighbourhood of this town, although he was unable to discover the cause of their removal, and he considered that the several ancient cattle enclosures of stone were relics of this occupation.

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At the time of his residence there the Batlapin had no tradition concerning them, only they felt certain that they could not have been built by their ancestors, as the Batlapin enclosures are all formed of thorn bushes, and one generation adheres strictly to the customs of that which preceded it. The Bahurutsi and other nations in that direction build their enclosures of stone, exactly similar to these ruins.

According to other native authorities, however, there appears every reason to believe that these fenced ruins and fortified huts were constructed by the pioneer tribe of the Leghoya, which ever pressed forward in the van to the southward, and which was the first to cross the 'Gij 'Gariep or Vaal, near its junction with the Vet, or as it was called by the aborigines of the land the 'Gij 'Goup and 'Gum-'Gariep, or Little River. From their own traditions they passed through this line of country, and it is said that they were not only the first to adopt the practice of fortifying their huts and kraals, but also finished these constructions with greater care and neatness than any other tribe.

Shortly after 1790 the Batlapin were nearly ruined by the Koranas carrying off the greater part of their cattle. According to Mr. Campbell, old Cornelius Kok, who was still living in 1820, happened to be hunting with some of his people, and found them in this forlorn condition. He remained with them nearly two years, protecting, and also assisting them with food by shooting game, till he had recovered many of their cattle from the Koranas.

On this account, even to the time of Mr. Campbell's visit, these Batlapin styled Cornelius Kok " their father." It was about this time that the northern clans of Koranas were reinforced by the Springboks, who ultimately elected Jan Bloem the elder as their captain, from among whom he took the wives by whom he left at his death seven sons besides daughters.

At this period the Batlapin had extended themselves as far to the southward as the valley of the Nokannan, on the confines of the Kalahari. Batshwa was the captain of the outlying kraals in that direction. This Batshwa had married Pikwane, the wife of Mashoe, whose son had been raised to the chieftainship by Manaka after the death of the great chief. From this union Pikwane had a son who was named Munametse. He was an old man in 1820.

Her second husband Batshwa was killed by a Bushman near Nokannan, while on a hunting excursion. It was soon after Batshwa's death that the Koranas first made war upon these Batlapin outposts. The two Korana clans which thus pushed on to the northward were the Taaibosches and Scorpions, until they penetrated and settled as far as Malapitzi, to the east of Lithako. On this occasion they drove the Batlapin from Nokannan to Katuse, and afterwards to the source of the Koeromanie, capturing almost the whole of their cattle, which were their chief means of support. A famine ensued, and they were reduced to the necessity of living on roots and whatever game they could occasionally kill.

During this famine Pikwane, the mother of Munametse, died, when the latter was taken under the protection of Molehabangwe, the paramount chief of the tribe and the father of Mothibi, who had him circumcised, paying for him the cattle expected from a captain on such an important occasion. He became one of his half-brother Molehabangwe's great fighting captains ; the first warlike expedition, however, in which he was engaged was a disastrous one.

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The Batlou and Batlapin tribes entered into an alliance to attack a neighbouring nation. A place of meeting was agreed upon, but owing to some mistake the junction was not effected. The Batlapin, although disappointed at this mischance, resolved to attack the nation single-handed, without waiting for the Batlou. In their first assault they carried everything before them, defeating the people and capturing many of the cattle, the sole object of their enterprise. Next day, however, their opponents rallied, attacked them in their turn, and gained a complete victory over them.

All the cattle were recaptured, and the Batlapin were pressed in their flight so warmly that most of them threw away their karosses, that they might be able to escape with greater speed. Eight of the chief captains and many young chiefs fell in the battle, or were overtaken and slain in their rapid retreat. After the pursuit was abandoned, the fugitives nearly perished from the coldness of the weather and the want of provisions.

Some time afterwards a party of this tribe went to purchase cat-skin karosses from the Bakalahari, who lived at some distance to the north-east of their territory. During three days journey in the Kalahari they found no water. A short time before finding it they were attacked by Madraka, the chief of a clan of Barolong that had taken the title of Bataung,N who succeeded in cutting off the whole party.

As soon as the news of this unprovoked attack reached Lithako, the Batlapin sent an expedition against these Bataung to revenge it, and succeeded in taking many of their cattle. Elated, but not satisfied with this success, these Batlapin marched a second time against the Bataung, and again defeated them, burning their great-place and slaying many of its inhabitants.

Notes: This is not the great Bataung tribe of which the Leghoya were the elder branch, but a small clan of the Barolong, that was afterwards annihilated in the native wars, which led Dr. Livingstone to imagine that the Bataung had become extinct.

After this signal defeat and the destruction of their town, the remnant of the Bataung fled for protection to a nation beyond the Bangwaketse, probably a portion of the Bakuena. But even here the Batlapin would not allow them to remain in peace, but started a third expedition after them.

On the road thither they fell in with Makaba, the chief of the Bangwaketse, who was engaged on a hunting excursion, and who on hearing the object of their expedition tried to divert them from it, and in lieu thereof to unite with him in an onslaught on one of his neighbours. They refused compliance, proceeded onward with their original determination, and attacked Madraka and the tribe with which he had taken refuge.

Here they met with such a severe repulse that they were obliged to make a hasty retreat. In the meantime Makaba had determined to intercept them upon their return, and placed his warriors in ambush for that purpose. Upon their near approach Makaba's men took them by surprise, and slew many of them, thus giving a disastrous ending to their expeditions against the Bataung.

Notwithstanding the numerous forays that were being continually made by these tribes for the sake of capturing one another's cattle, such was the natural timidity of many of the Bachoana that if a party of them was attacked by a superior force, and there did not appear any prospect of escaping, they made no resistance, but calmly allowed themselves to be butchered. This trait in their character will explain the sudden reverses and collapses in which so many of their expeditions ended, as well as the facility with which more determined and warlike invaders overran the country from whatever direction they made their appearance.

About the beginning of the present century the Batlou sent envoys to the Batlapin, inviting them to join in an attack upon the Leghoya, with whom the former had a quarrel. The Batlapin sent a strong party, of which Munametse was one. The united attack was successful, and many cattle were captured and carried off from the Leghoya. On their return, this combined force of marauders attacked a kraal of Bachoana-Bushmen, to seize the few cattle which they possessed. In the struggle Munametse was wounded in the leg. At this time the Leghoya lived on the left bank of the 'Gij-'Gariep or Vaal, as Munametse in his narrative mentioned the fact of their crossing it. He also stated that the Batlapin made an attack upon the Bakuena, but omitted mentioning the result.

The following occurrence, which took place shortly after the commencement of the rule of Molehabangwe, may serve as an illustration of the manners of his times. A party of Bastaards from the Falls, or Pella, on the Great river, then the headquarters of the embryo-Griquas, paid a visit to Lithako to improve their fortunes in the usual manner of the natives of those days. They were all well armed and mounted on oxen, and had some women with them. When they left they resolved not to return without a fortune.

Pursuing their course a great distance along the western boundary of the Kalahari, and favoured with a rainy season, they directed their steps east and south-east until they reached the Mosheu river, thus coming into the Bachoana territory from a quarter in which they were least expected.

Here they found some cattle outposts belonging to the Batlapin under Molehabangwe, who was then residing at Lithako. They soon supplied themselves with what they liked, took some of the cattle, dispatched those who resisted their depredations, and pursued their course for some days along the river. They reached the great town of Molehabangwe, where the tidings of the robbery had arrived before them, and the inhabitants had the mortification of beholding two or three of their pack oxen in the possession of the marauders.

No notice was taken, and more than usual courtesy was shown towards them. In order to keep up an appearance of an abundant quantity of ammunition, they filled some bags with sand, to deceive the Batlapin.

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When the appetites of the guests had been whetted, and the whole party were anxious for a revel in beef, two oxen were presented to them. One of them, being extremely wild, which was part of the stratagem, took fright at the appearance of the motley group, and darted off, when all pursued, eager to secure their fat and tempting prey. This was the moment for revenge, and at a given signal several were speared at once. Others rallied, and retreated to one of the stone folds, but having scarcely any powder or shot they made but a feeble resistance.

Mercy in vain was asked, no quarter was given, and night put a close to the struggle, when the Bachoana lay down by fires, surrounding their intended victims, as they usually do even on the field of battle, and slept. Those of the travellers who were not wounded, aided by the darkness of the night, made their escape, and directed their course to the southward, as the Cape Colony was in that direction.

At daylight the women and wounded were all dispatched, and those who had escaped were pursued for three successive days, with the determination to exterminate the whole party. They had well-nigh succeeded, for one alone of about fifty, covered with wounds, returned to the Waterfall on the 'Gariep, there to relate the fearful catastrophe which had befallen them.

In 1807 the relative positions of the several tribes were, from west to east and north-east, 1, the Batlapin ; 2, the Barolong ; 3, the Bangwaketse, and 4, the great Bakuena group, or the Bakone tribes as they were frequently called.

About 1811-12, in the later days of Molehabangwe, a somewhat startling incident took place, in the appearance so far in the interior of a numerous body of plundering Kaffirs from the border of the sea, who came against the Batlapin, intending to steal their cattle. In 1810 a similar, or probably the same horde had threatened to attack Griquatown. From the date of these attacks it is certain that the marauding Kaffirs belonged to neither the Amazulu nor Matabili, but were a portion of the emigrant Abatembu or Amaxosa, about whom there are a number of traditions along the valley of the 'Nu-'Gariep or Upper Orange river, as well as among the Eastern Frontier Kaffirs themselves, as will be more fully explained when specially treating of those tribes.

This inroad is a strange illustration of that inherent craving after cattle which possesses the native mind, when we find that these very Kaffirs, to avoid the harrying of the more powerful branches of their own tribes, fled from the lower or coast districts into what was to them an unknown interior ; but no sooner had they arrived there and made the discovery that there were other tribes not only rich in cattle, but also less warlike than themselves, than they at once made an attempt to commence the same system of strife and spoliation from which they themselves had attempted to escape.

They came in such insignificant numbers that they could be isolated and cut off from supplies by those whom they assailed, instead of being able to strike an immediate and crushing blow like the overwhelming hordes of the Amazulu and Matabili, which bore down everything before them by sheer force of numbers, leaving nothing but the silence of desolation and death behind them.

Lithako, the great place of the Batlapin, was at this time divided into two distinct districts. The Kaffirs first attacked Molehabangwe's division of the town, when the inhabitants of the opposite, or Mira division, seized the opportunity to flee with their cattle. The attacking Kaffirs, observing their flight, took possession of their cattle kraals and enclosures, under shelter of which they resisted the assaults made upon them by Molehabangwe and the remaining inhabitants.

The Kaffirs were possessed of some muskets. After this the Batlapin placed themselves between the Kaffirs and the water, and thus cut off their supply. In this they succeeded for the greater part of a day, when the Kaffirs, almost overcome by thirst, fought their way through the opposing Batlapin, killing and wounding many of them.

While the Kaffirs were obtaining a supply of water, some Koranas who were with the Batlapin advised Molehabangwe to retire with his cattle from the town to the open field, and there stand on the defensive. This plan was rejected. The Kaffirs did not, however, return to the attack that evening, but the contest was renewed the next day.

Molehabangwe with two others had gone out to watch their motions, and this was observed by the attacking party, who sent several men after them. They fled, but were closely pursued almost the whole day, during which time their pursuers on different occasions got so near to them as to be able to throw several assagais at them, but without effect. This continued until near sunset, when both sides being equally weary, the chase was given up.

The main body of the Kaffirs besieged the town the whole day, and killed one of the captains, but they were not successful in obtaining many cattle, though they killed some. The third day the Kaffirs renewed the attack, when several captains were killed, among whom were a father and two sons with many of their people. In the evening the Batlapin, taking advantage of the darkness, left the place with the cattle. The next day the Kaffirs pursued, but instead of coming up with Molehabangwe, fell in with the Mira division, which fled at the commencement of the attack. In the battle which followed, Mahumu-Pelu, the eldest son of the chief, was killed, and many of their cattle were taken, with which their enemies, being satisfied, departed without pursuing Molehabangwe.

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These attacks from the southward rendered the Batlapin so jealous of the intrusion of strangers from that direction, that if any of the inhabitants saw travellers in the country, he was bound to report the circumstance at once to the great chief at Lithako, under pain of death.

In 1813 the south-western boundary of the Batlapin territory was the ridge of mountains several hours' journey to the north of the Great Kusie fountain.

The same insatiable lust for cattle was not only the ruling passion of all these people, but also the impetus which urged them to undertake enterprises with which one would scarcely have credited them, had we not been assured of the fact upon good authority. From time to time it gave birth to a migratory spirit which impelled them to undertake long journeys, either for the purpose of obtaining more extended pasturage, or for the protection of their own, or the acquisition of cattle from other tribes.

The long distances to which some of their plundering expeditions were pushed by the most daring of these people in the hope of capturing the great treasure of their lives, is well illustrated by the following account of one of them, given by Makwetse, a captain of the Batlapin, to Mr. Campbell.

The narrator was engaged in the enterprise which he described, and which also demonstrated at the same time that even up to a recent period the various tribes found in Southern Africa were living in detached groups, with considerable areas of open territory between them, inhabited only by the scattered aboriginal hunters, who at one time had the whole of these wide-spread lands to themselves.

For a long time the Batlapin had been in the habit of trading with the Bakalahari, principally with a view of obtaining the wild cat skins of which some of their most prized karosses were made. From these people of the desert they learnt of a nation called Mampua, living to the north or north-west of the Kalahari, who were said to be very rich in cattle. Whether these belonged to the Hottentot or Bachoana race was not stated, but judging from their position most probably to the Ovaherero or Ovambo.

The Bakalahari had received their information from a remarkably small race of Bushmen who roamed over part of the Kalahari, and who had made some successful excursions against the Mampua. The arrows of these Bushmen were composed of nine inches of reed and nine inches of bone, the whole of the latter being covered with poison.

After hearing this, the Batlapin resolved to send a strong commando into the country of the Mampua, with the hope of seizing a large booty of cattle in their unexpected attack. They started under the command of Makwetse. On their way they did not meet any of these Bushmen, although on their return they were attacked by them. The march upon the Mampua people occupied two moons, travelling every day from sunrise to sunset.

They took pack oxen with them to carry food, but obtained so little to eat upon the road that they were ultimately obliged to kill the oxen, and even all these were consumed before reaching the place of their destination. Many of the Bakalahari accompanied them as guides on the road and to the pools of water. They likewise assisted them in plundering the Mampua.

At one part of the road they were ten days without finding any water, using watermelons in its stead. On one occasion they came to a pool, in which elephants had been standing during the night ; they all drank of the water, and were seized with violent sickness.

They found a large pool in a cave under a cliff, into which the oxen went and drank. On the seventeenth day after this they came to the Great Water (the Atlantic), of which they were all afraid ; it had, they said, stars upon it (probably meaning the sun's rays), and great waves that ran after them, and then ran back again. They had never seen such a sight before. The country was level near the sea, but there were hills in the distance.

Notwithstanding the secrecy of their expedition, the Mampua had by some means been warned of their approach, and were making their cattle swim to an island at a short distance from the shore. Makwetse, being a young man, volunteered to push forward with some others and intercept them ; and thus they succeeded in capturing about 150 oxen and cows. The Mampua, who at first expected that the invaders would attack their town, when they saw them retreating with the cattle they had taken, pursued them, but were repulsed with a loss of three men.

The next day they made a second attempt at recapture, but were again beaten off. Observing the courage of the natives, the freebooters, whose only object was the acquisition of cattle, determined without further delay to retrace their steps with what little spoil they had been able to seize.

It was fortunate for them that they had made even this capture, otherwise they must have perished from want of food on their way home. Three moons were occupied on the journey, as they were retarded by the cattle they had captured, yet notwithstanding all their toil not more than thirty head survived upon their arrival at Lithako. It is probable that the Mampua, owing to the repeated attacks which had been made upon them by Bushmen, Bakalahari, and others, had stationed sentinels on the neighbouring hills to give timely warning of an enemy's approach, and thus escaped the treachery the Batlapin had meditated against them.

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Notwithstanding the failure of this first attempt, having once discovered the existence of this strange tribe possessing cattle, several other expeditions were undertaken against them, in one of which Mothibi, son of Molehabangwe, was absent ten months. Mr. Campbell states that he learnt from the evidence of another Motlapin named Mutire, that they repeated their attacks upon these people on the west coast.

Mutire affirmed that he had accompanied one expedition, and that they first travelled north by Chue, the valley of Honey, and afterwards westward, passing through a portion of the Kalahari, substituting wild watermelons for water. These they found strewn in abundance over the desert.

After a journey of five moons they reached the nation called Mampua, who resided on a great water, across which they could observe no land, and on which they observed the sun to set. They saw people go on the water in bowls, who had pieces of timber which they put into the water, and pushed themselves forward.

Mutire stated that the Mampua were a peaceable and unsuspecting people ; that they killed a great many of them, and took away their cattle. Those whom they did not kill fled, and left them to carry off their cattle without molestation, with which they returned in five moons to Lithako. This was probably the same attack as that in which Mothibi was engaged. After this Tsela-Kgotu, Mothibi's uncle, made several successful expeditions against the same people.

The death of Molehabangwe, the first Batlapin chief who raised them into notice, appears to have taken place during the period between the Kaffir attack and Mr. Campbell's visit in 1812-13. In the early part of 1817 the Batlapin were attacked by the warriors of Makaba, the warlike chief of the Bangwaketse, their ancient foes, on which occasion they lost a large portion of their cattle. Irritated at the loss, but fearing to attempt their recapture from so formidable an antagonist, Mothibi, who by this time had succeeded his father Molehabangwe, determined to make reprisals upon the people of some other tribe who he imagined would be less capable of resisting him.

He therefore resolved to make another onslaught upon the Bakuena, who being nearly 200 miles to the north-east would be less suspicious of such an attempt from so distant a quarter. For this purpose he mustered so large an expedition that the men composing it imagined themselves sufficiently powerful to overcome any force which might be opposed to them, and as a consequence great was their joy and loud their boasting at the hour of their departure, in anticipation of the easy but richly rewarded triumphs they expected to gain.

Their object, as ever before, was to capture cattle. The invading force was commanded by Mothibi in person. The women, says Moffat, had just been wailing over the loss of many cattle taken by the Bangwaketse, and now their husbands were gone to inflict the same distress upon others !

The Batlapin warriors, full of confidence, arrived at their destination," but instead of the success they had anticipated, their supposed invincible commando was repulsed and scattered. Many were slain, others dashed to pieces over precipices, and Mothibi himself, wounded in the foot, narrowly escaped with many of his warriors. Again bitter were the lamentations of the women, as each succeeding party announced to many a distracted mother and child that they were widows and orphans. This calamitous event produced such a depressing influence upon the Batlapin that in June 1817 Mothibi, with the majority of the inhabitants of Lithako, removed to the Koeromanie river.

Besides these greater events in their tribal history, the intervening times were filled up with more petty raids of the marauding Bushmen, the men of the old hunter race, which sometimes ended in a terrible massacre of every man, woman, and child of the latter that fell into the hands of the Batlapin. The Bushmen were once the sole possessors of the territory now occupied by the Bachoana, equally with that taken possession of by either the Koranas or Griquas, or those other tribes which it will be necessary to notice in the sequel.

With regard to the Batlapin, it is quite certain that a considerable number of the original inhabitants were still scattered over all portions of the country which the former could not themselves personally occupy. The Batlapin had neither been able to conquer, annihilate, or expel the old race from its territories. These aborigines clung to their ancient haunts with that astonishing tenacity against all odds and all dangers, which has ever been such a remarkable feature with regard to them. The Bushmen of the country had, according to Moffat, kept up a constant predatory warfare with the Bachoana from time immemorial, upon whom they wreaked their vengeance whenever an occasion offered.

Mr. Campbell asserts that some time previous to 1820 a large party of Bushmen went to Old Lithako, and at midday captured some of their cattle in sight of the town. The inhabitants, in consequence of a late discomfiture they had received from the Bushmen, were so intimidated that they declined to pursue them. This timidity so emboldened the Bushmen that they advanced to the side of the town, and demanded pots to boil the flesh of the captured cattle !

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On another and later occasion the Batlapin acted with more spirit, and completely overcame a party of those plunderers, after which time they were not again molested ; but even up to 1820 a great cave near Koeromanie was the general refuge of the robbing Bushmen. It was a cave which contained gloomy mysteries, into the depths of which the more timid Batlapin had not the courage to penetrate.

A characteristic and graphic description is given by Mr. Campbell of the return of one of the Batlapin commandos after pursuing some of the nimble-footed Bushmen. There had been a great hue and cry, and about sunset the warriors who had given chase were seen approaching on their return.

There were about eighty, the others had been left behind from lameness and fatigue. They marched in rows about six deep, each carrying before him a shield and spear in an upright position, and singing in concert without taking any notice of those around. One or two at a time were constantly running out of the ranks to a distance of thirty or forty yards, imitating attacks upon Bushmen or pretending to defend themselves against them.

On entering the town they proceeded directly to the chief's house, where he and his captains were seated on the left side of the gate. A considerable assemblage of women greeted them on their arrival. The captains were seated in the form of a crescent, the chief sitting in the middle and in front. The commando on arriving within twenty yards halted, and took their seats immediately opposite the chief, and after a short pause a description of the pursuit was given by the leaders, the women frequently shouting their applause during its recital.

It appeared that they followed the track of the greatest number of oxen till they came to the Bushman kraal, where they found nine of the animals lying dead. The Bushmen fled with five of the oxen, one of which they also killed in the flight. To entice the Bushmen to return, they left everything in the same state in which they had found it, and retired to a distance out of sight. The Bushmen did return, but having observed some of the Batlapin, they instantly fled. On seeing this the Batlapin feasted on the dead oxen, and then returned home.

After this occurrence Mothibi and his captains determined to take signal revenge on the Bushmen for their late robberies, by sending out a numerous party against them. Some time before, when the Bushmen killed a brother of Mothibi, a similar party was sent out against them, who massacred all of that miserable nation that came in their way, men, women, and children, to the number of about 200. When the Batlapin attack a Bushman kraal to revenge robberies of cattle, they kill without distinction men, women, and children ; women, they say, to prevent them breeding more thieves, and children to prevent them from becoming like their parents !

On a previous occasion, when a considerable party of these Batlapin were on a hunting expedition, they pursued a buck which had been previously wounded by a party of Bushmen. The pursuit continued until sunset, when they halted, but in the morning they recovered the trail, and continuing the chase, overtook and killed the animal. The carcase was cut up and put on a pack ox, and sent by one of their number to Lithako. The natives of this part, and amongst them the Batlapin, had a recognised custom that any game killed belonged to the one who had first wounded it. The knowledge of this fact will probably throw some light upon what followed.

The Bushmen had first wounded this animal, which they lost through the intervention of a stronger party of Batlapin. Thus considering themselves wronged, they determined to recover by stratagem what they had lost by force. On the road the messenger was joined by some Bushmen, who walked with him and assisted to drive the ox. However when they arrived at a convenient place, they attacked and wounded the man with a poisoned arrow, and then carried off the ox with the flesh on its back.

The Motlapin managed, notwithstanding his wound, to rejoin the hunting party, and although he died soon afterwards, was able to communicate the information of the robbery. The hunters returned hastily to Lithako, and sent out Bushman spies, i.e. tame Bushmen in their service, to discover the retreat of the depredators. They soon returned with the desired information, when a large party of Batlapin proceeded against them. The aggressing Bushmen living in two kraals, the Batlapin divided themselves into two bodies, in order to attack both kraals at the same time.

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One party reached one of the kraals before daylight, while all the inhabitants were fast asleep, and a general massacre of men, women, and children took place. Only one Bushman escaped the carnage, who fled to the woods, pursued by the enraged Batlapin. He was overtaken, and although he defended himself boldly for a considerable time and wounded several of his assailants, he was at length overpowered and numbered with the dead.

Of the Bushmen of the other kraal, who were attacked by the Mira division of the Batlapin, the men escaped, but the women and children were all slaughtered.

About the time of Mr. Campbell's visit the Bushmen stole twenty head of cattle from Mothibi's people, a commando immediately pursued and overtook them on the plain, when they killed ten men, five women, and five children. On returning from the slaughter, all the circumstances attending it were related at a pitso, or general meeting, after which men and women dispersed over the town, imitating the screams of those persons who had been killed, repeating their expressions of terror, and representing their actions when begging for their lives.

The Lithako women displayed on this occasion a more cruel disposition than even the men. They imitated, with much apparent pleasure, the screams of the Bushmen when put to death by the Bachoana.

Thompson informs us that the expeditions of the Batlapin against the Bushmen were peculiarly vindictive, and conducted with all the insidiousness and murderous ferocity, without the heroic intrepidity of American or New Zealand savages.

This was evidently the natural effect or reaction of the inherent cowardice of these untutored savages, great in courage when they found they had an enemy weaker than themselves, and whom they had overpowered by stratagem or surprise, when nothing but dabbling in the blood of their helpless victims, women and children, seemed to satisfy them. On such occasions their ferocious cruelty knew no bounds, and they were guilty of as horrible atrocities as ever stained the traditionary history of the most barbarous and ruthless tribes of South Africa.

Campbell relates another instance when, on the 1st of April 1820, an alarm was given that the Bushmen had carried off both oxen and cows belonging to the mission society. Immediately all was bustle and confusion, the men arming themselves and hastening out of town in little parties, which continued for more than an hour, till nearly every man had gone in pursuit of the Bushmen. Some parties marched in regular order with their spears suspended and their shields hanging over their backs. The hatred which many of the Batlapin felt against the Bushmen was so great that they were glad of such an occurrence, because it afforded them an opportunity of taking revenge on that miserable portion of the human species.

In July of the same year another alarm was given, in the evening, that the Bushmen had carried off a lot of cattle from an outpost under Polikane, an old captain living in the lower district of Lithako ; and it was further reported that the herdsmen also had been forced away by the Bushmen, with the design, it was feared, of murdering them, to prevent them giving the alarm. A general gloom was spread over the place by the news. Not a whisper was heard after sunset, no one was seen moving about, all was perfectly still, nor was their concern to be wondered at on such occasions, as their chief dependence for support was their cattle, the droughts so constantly blasting their hopes of obtaining a supply from their fields.

Mothibi and the Batlapin started in pursuit, accompanied on this occasion by a Christian Griqua, who Mr. Campbell trusted would prevent the murder of the innocent, for, says he, if the Batlapin were to come to a kraal of Bushmen, however guiltless of the offence, while enraged against that people, they would murder man, woman, and child with as much indifference as boys would kill mice. The poor Bushwomen must be wretched in the extreme, he adds, not knowing but that every time their husbands leave home in search of food, they may bring after them a host of barbarians thirsting for their blood and crying for vengeance.

Those who went on horseback in pursuit of the Bushmen returned at midnight. After leaving Lithako they galloped forward about twenty miles, when they came in sight of four Bushmen driving the same number of oxen as fast as they could make them go. At first the Bushmen thought the Batlapin who followed them were on foot, therefore they thrust their spears into the two weakest oxen, and continued to drive the others towards Reyner Mountain. The instant however they discovered that their pursuers were on horseback and armed with guns, they wounded the remaining oxen, and drove them a little way back, after which they fled and concealed themselves amongst bushes and holes.

The Batlapin did not pursue them, aware how much risk they ran from their poisoned arrows shot from among bushes. They contented themselves therefore with driving back the wounded cattle. The leaders of the party were doubtless disappointed at finding none of the cattle dead of their wounds. In that case they would have prepared to feast, whereas they were now obliged to go to bed fasting, for on such expeditions they carry no provisions, but depend upon the cattle which are generally slaughtered by the Bushmen before they can be overtaken ; and thus it is when they come up to any cattle left dead by the Bushmen, instead of pursuing the robbers with greater ardour, they sit down and feast.

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Mothibi in his hunting and other expeditions was accompanied by many attendants carrying spears and poles dressed with black ostrich feathers, which were stuck in the ground around places where they halted, to frighten away lions, which, from Bushman experience, it was discovered were not fond of their appearance.

The loss of cattle to such cattle-loving races as the Bachoana, Basutu, and Kaffirs must have been galling and irritating in the extreme. When captured by people like themselves, there was the chance of recapture, with perhaps a few additional beeves to compensate for the temporary loss ; but when seized by the Bushmen, in most instances it became a total loss, as when the latter found themselves hotly pursued, those they could not escape with were generally stabbed or hamstrung, so that the avengers who followed them could not avail themselves of the recapture, nor make reprisals upon the hunter-race, whose only cattle were the wild herds of the eland, the quagga, and the gnu.

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The pursuers therefore, whenever an opportunity was afforded them, revenged themselves upon the persons of the wild hunters, by slaying them without pity when they fell into their hands. But is it possible for us to say that the Bushmen had neither injustice nor wrong to complain of ?

They were not the invaders, it was not they who attempted to appropriate the country of others ; and after such recitals as the foregoing of the treatment which they constantly received at the hands of the Koranas, the Griquas, and as we now find of the Bachoana, can the deadly and vindictive hatred which seemed to animate their untutored minds, and which was frequently displayed in their actions and in their attempts at retaliation, be wondered at ? They found that every hand was raised against them, and that none showed them mercy or pity.

Numerous intermarriages had taken place between Bushmen and Batlapin and Koranas and Batlapin, and this not only between the commoner people, but also between some of their leading chiefs ; thus Mahutoe, the great-wife of Mothibi, was the daughter of a Korana captain living near the Vaal, still she was at the same time descended from Morakanela, an ancestor of Mothibi, thus proving a prior marriage between some ancestor of her father and a daughter of the royal house of Phuduhuchoana.

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It was said that Phethloi (the Peclu of Philip and other writers), the eldest son and heir of Mothibi and Mahutoe, who died young, perished through witchcraft; as the Batlapin, in common with all other native tribes in South Africa, had a firm belief that all deaths except those occasioned by violence and old age were caused by enchantments or sorcery. He left an only son, named Phuitsile (the Dove has come), who was afterwards killed fighting against the Dutch, leaving four sons and three daughters.

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The great-place of Mothibi, which was visited in 1823 by Thompson, is thus described : the huts of which it was composed were all of a circular form, and of a very peculiar and convenient fashion, considering the climate and circumstances of the people. The roof was raised upon a circle of wooden pillars, including an area of from twenty to thirty feet in diameter ; about two yards within these pillars is raised a wall of clay, or of wattle and plaster, which is not generally carried quite up to the roof, but a space is left above for the free admission of air. In the centre, or back of the hut, is constructed a small apartment where they keep their most valuable effects.

Between the wall and the pillars the people generally recline during the sultry hours. Each of these houses is enclosed within a close wattled fence, about seven or eight feet high, which is carried round it at a distance of six, eight, or ten yards, thus forming a private yard, within which are placed the owner's com jars and other bulky property.

Each of these yards has a small gate, and all the houses are built in exactly the same style, and nearly of the same dimensions, except that belonging to the chief, which is almost double the size of any of the rest. His house and those of his principal captains were erected near a large camel- thorn tree, which was left there as a sign of rank. The streets and lanes were kept perfectly clean, neither bushes, rubbish, bones, or any other nuisance was allowed to be thrown upon them. The place allotted for public assemblies was in the centre of the town, enclosed with a wattled fence. It was about 150 yards in diameter. One side was set apart for the warriors, the other for the old men, women, and children.

The arms of the Batlapin at this time were bows and arrows, assagais, battle-axes, and shields. We have already described the paint that was used for war and for festive occasions. The commonalty were debarred the use of particular skins ; that of the jackal was reserved for the use of the chief men of the tribe. Mr. Campbell describes one of these subordinate chiefs, named Malawu, who had a short time before joined Mothibi with 500 men, as being seated on a quagga skin, which was striped like that of a zebra ; his beard was black and about an inch long on his upper lip and on the lower part of his chin ; he had also the skin of a long serpent wrapped round his head, and the head of the animal hung over his brow.

The writer has been informed by the Basutu chief Mapele that all the men of the Bachoana and Basutu tribes prided themselves exceedingly upon any display of beard, considering it an index of strength and virility. We shall omit for the present any consideration of their various ceremonies, their rites of initiation and other customs, and proceed once more in our attempt to unravel the thread of their history.

Owing to the marauding Griquas and nomad Koranas who infested the country to the south, a belt of neutral ground had been tacitly agreed upon between Griqualand and the Bachoana territory, in which, however, as we have seen, a considerable number of Bushmen still lingered ; but formidable as their attacks had proved, there were about this time other dangers of a still more terrible character looming above the horizon in an opposite direction.

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THE CAREER OF THE MANTATEE HORDE


The year 1820 was an eventful one in the history of the Bachoana and Basutu tribes, although some eight or ten years elapsed before they were entirely crushed beneath the terrors to which it gave birth. It was in that year that Moselekatze and his horde of Abaka-Zulu, as they styled themselves, broke away from the sanguinary yoke of Tshaka to commence for themselves a career which was to be marked, like that of the master whom they had deserted, with atrocious cruelties and remorseless bloodshedding.

Between that year and 1823 Makaba, who had already rendered himself formidable by his widespread successes, raised the fame of his Bangwaketse warriors to a higher pitch than they had ever before attained, until at last he exercised a power which threatened to overshadow all the less warlike and weaker tribes around him.

At intervals, however, vague and exaggerated reports began to reach the Batlapin, even as early as 1821, of another still greater, but indefinable evil, that was moving among the nations who lived far towards the rising sun. Some of these rumours were of such a character that even the resident missionaries amongst them treated them as the reveries of a madman.

And even when in the beginning of the year 1822 these vague rumours began to take a definite shape, when it was affirmed that a mighty woman had made her appearance, whose name was Mantatisi, that she was at the head of an invincible army, surrounded by hosts of warriors numerous as the locusts, rushing onward among the interior nations carrying devastation and ruin wherever she went ; that she nourished the army with her milk, and sent out hornets before it, in one word was laying the world desolate, even then Mr. Moffat states that the missionaries considered that these numerous rumours had arisen from the destructive wars carried on by the tyrant Tshaka, and therefore too far removed to affect their operations ; while the tribes themselves were so much engrossed with the threatening and ever-increasing power of the Bangwaketse growing up in their very midst and so much nearer their own doors, that they were prevented from paying much heed to the mutterings of omens which appeared distant and chimerical.

The star of Makaba appeared too high in the ascendant for anything else to interfere with it, and the Batlapin and the neighbouring tribes were living in constant dread of an attack of so powerful an enemy, of whom they could never speak without stigmatizing him with the most opprobrious epithets.

Thus blinded by the fear of more immediate danger, the immense hordes of the victorious and ruthless Mantatees were steadily advancing upon them, gathering strength by absorbing other tribes in their ranks as they approached, until their moving hosts took days in passing any given spot.

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Their foremost divisions had already swarmed over the Bangwaketse hills and fallen by hundreds in the fatal toils laid for them by the warrior chief ; they had stormed the Bahurutsi towns, reduced their great-place to ashes, and so completely despoiled that tribe of their great herds of cattle that the remnant were reduced to seek roots and wild game for their sustenance. They had now, after completing this last work of destruction, turned their steps through the Barolong territory towards Lithako, upon which place they were surely and rapidly moving, and yet the Batlapin were unaware of their danger.

So little was known or thought of the true position of affairs that Mr. Moffat started from Kuruman on a distant journey to the Bangwaketse along the very line of their advance. On the third day he reached Old Lithako. Here the reports of the Mantatees had somewhat revived, and the natives strongly advised him to proceed no farther than Nokoneng, some twenty miles distant.

Rumours had reached Nokoneng that the Mantatees had already attacked the Barolong at Kunuana, about 100 miles off, and that their towns were in the hands of the marauders ; but as spies who had been sent out returned without hearing anything of the reported invaders, he again set forward and travelled four days farther, through a dry and trackless part of the country, when he arrived at Mosite, a fine valley with some pools of water and plenty of game.

Here however there was no longer room for doubt. Strange men were seen watching from a distant height, who from their unusual conduct in not approaching the waggons it was concluded must be strangers from a great distance, or some of the Mantatees.

At length two passing Barolong informed the travellers that the Mantatees were already in possession of the town which lay in their rear behind some heights which they could distinctly see, while one of their informants had narrowly escaped with his life in the conflict with the invaders ; added to this some prisoners who had escaped affirmed that the enemy were then about to start for Lithako !

The time for prompt action had arrived, and an immediate return became imperative. On the way back to their station, thousands who were yet slumbering in fancied security were startled by the communication of the fearful news. The intelligence when almost too late spread with rapidity, and all was commotion and confusion. Fugitives from the latest scattered tribes were already arriving, increasing the terror by their recitals.

The Mantatees were already upon them, their hordes were in reality both numerous and powerful, they had destroyed many of the Bakone towns and slaughtered immense numbers of people, they had laid Kurrichane in ruins and scattered the Barolong, and in addition were said to be cannibals !

Tidings of so alarming a character threw a gloom over the entire population ; all their previous perils were comparatively insignificant to this. A meeting was held, and three alternatives were proposed : the first was to make the best defence they could against their formidable foe single-handed, an apparently hopeless undertaking ; the second, to abandon their position and flee nearer to the Cape Colony for protection ; the third, to appeal to the well-armed Griquas for assistance. The last and wisest plan was adopted, and Mr. Moffat at once undertook the mission to Griquatown.

We have already seen that by a fortunate coincidence the Griqua chiefs were assembled in Griquatown, the Koks having accompanied Mr. Thompson at the time of the arrival of the appeal from the Batlapin.

With commendable activity, forgetting for the moment their own personal grievances, they were at once in the saddle ; but with all their promptitude eleven days would have to elapse before the much needed succour could arrive at Koeromanie. Eleven days appeared an awful space in such a time of wild excitement and apprehension, when every hour appeared an age, and every moment might be the herald of momentous intelligence, the precursor of calamities and suffering not easily described.

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At this crisis, Mr. Moffat, accompanied by Mr. Thompson, returned to Koeromanie with the news of the promised succour, hoping thus to encourage the Batlapin until the Griqua aid could arrive. There all was agitation and dismay. Warriors donned their war dresses, and chiefs adorned themselves with leopard skins and plumes of feathers, shields and assagais were in requisition, quivers containing poisoned arrows were slung from their shoulders, and they paraded with their battle-axes in their hands.

Orders were sent off to their different towns and villages and to their neighbours, the Batlaro ; a great pitso, or parliament, was held, at which members of the following tribes were present : Batlapin, Barolong, Batlaro, Bamairi, and Bakotu.

The warriors arrived at the great place of assembly and took "up the positions allotted to them, seating themselves as they came upon the ground in close rows, holding their shields in front of them, and their assagais, seven or eight of which were stuck behind each shield, bristling up like a wood of spears. On the opposite side the old men, women, and children took their station.

War-songs were chanted, and mock-fights engaged in with all the fantastic gestures their wild imaginations could invent. The most privileged were those who had killed an enemy in battle.

When Mothibi stood up and commanded silence, he was answered by a deep groan from the mass of warriors in token of attention. Drawing an assagai from behind his shield, he pointed to the north-east, frequently thrusting his weapon in that direction, as if plunging it into an enemy, denouncing a curse at the same time against the invaders, thus declaring war against them.

A whistling sound was the answer of approval from the whole of the warriors. He then pointed towards the south and south-west, with the same action as before, and denounced a curse against the ox-eaters (Bushmen), which was again answered in a similar manner. Returning the weapon to its place, he commenced to address them.

Various were the orations made that day by the several chiefs, and fortunately fragments of their wild oratory have been preserved by Messrs. Moffat and Thompson, who were present on this occasion.

Be silent, ye Batlapin ! Be silent, ye Barolong ! Even the Makooas (white people) will be silent on this day, were the introductory exclamations of Mothibi. Ye sons of Molehabangwe ! the Mantatees are a strong and conquering people. They have destroyed many nations. They are now on their way to destroy us. The cause is a great one, it involves our very existence. I now wait to hear what is the general opinion. Let every one speak his mind freely.

He then made the same movements with his assagai as at the commencement, after which he waved the point towards the heavens, when all cried out Pula ! (Rain !) equal to the expression Blessing ! He then sat down amidst repeated shouts and other tokens of applause. War-dances, accompanied with shouts, introduced and concluded every speech.

Moshume said : To-day we are called upon to oppose an enemy who is the enemy of every one. If we flee, they will overtake us ; if we fight, they will overwhelm us. They are as strong as a lion, they kill, and devour, and spare none. I know you, ye Batlapin, at home and in the face of women ye are men, but in the face of an enemy ye are women, ever ready to flee when ye should stand firm. But consider and prepare your hearts to-day, be united in one, and hardened for the hour of trial.

Ranyouwe exhorted them to stand fast like men, not to be mere braggarts in the presence of women to make believe that they were mighty men. Keep your boasting, said he, until you have performed deeds worthy to be known.

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Be silent ! cried the young warrior Isite, we are not Barimo,N we are but men ! The Mantatees are mighty conquerors ; if we wait until they fall upon us, and are then forced to yield, we lose all. Let us attack the invaders before they advance farther, if we are forced to retreat there will then be time for the women and the feeble who remain behind to flee. We may fight and retire, fight and retire again, still fight, and at last conquer. But this we cannot do if we wait for the enemies' approach and let them attack us in our dwellings.

Notes: The departed shades of their great chiefs, their tutelar deities.

When Taisho, the Wise, stood up and demanded silence, an old man ran forward, stretching forth his arms towards the chief and exclaiming in a loud voice : Behold the man who shall speak wisdom ! Be silent ! Be instructed ! A man, a wise man has stood up to speak ! Taisho harangued them as the " sons of Molehabangwe."

He reproached them with cowardice, with desertion in the time of war. Ye cowards ! ye vagabonds ! he exclaimed, deny the charge if you can. Shall I count up how often you have done so ? Were I to repeat the instances you would decamp like a chastened dog, or with shame place your heads between your knees. Reflect on what is before you, let the subject sink deep into your hearts, that you turn not your backs in the day of battle.

You have heard of the battles that the Mantatees have fought, of the nations they have dispersed. You have heard that they now repose in quiet, and you look alone for deliverance to the Griquas with their guns and their horses. But I say again, prepare your hearts, stand up in your own defence, be strong, be resolute, else the invaders will overwhelm us and we shall perish from the earth !

Then turning to Mothibi, he continued, you are too indifferent in the concerns of your people, you are rolled up in apathy, this is the day to show that you are in reality a great chief and a man !

Dleloqua, a chief advanced in years, said : Ye sons of Molehabangwe ! have you heard enough to convince you that it is your duty to go forth to battle against the Mantatees, a people whose only aim is to plunder and destroy ? Ye sons of Molehabangwe ! ye have acted wisely this day. Ye have done well, first to deliberate, and then proceed to action. Moffat, our friend, revealed to us our peril, even as the daybreak after a dark night discloses to a man the danger that approached him when darkness shut his eyes.

The peril is great, we must not act like Bachoana, but like white men. My fathers ! my brothers ! my sons ! let us fortify our hearts, that disgrace may not haunt us. If we be not in readiness to defend our towns, our families, and our herds, our destruction is certain. Wherefore no one must attempt to excuse himself from battle. All must be obedient. All must be as one. This is a great pitso, therefore let your hearts be hard and great, oh ! ye sons of Molehabangwe !

It is best that we proceed against the enemy, said Mothibi in his reply, that they come no nearer ; let not our towns be the seat of war, let not our houses be the scenes of bloodshed and destruction. No ! let the blood of our enemies be shed at a distance from our wives and children. Yet some of you talk ignorantly, your words are the words of children or of men confounded. I am left almost alone ; my two brothers have abandoned me, they have taken wives of another nation, and allow their wives to direct them, their wives are their chiefs !

Then turning to his younger brothers, he imprecated a curse upon them if they should follow the example of their elder brethren. Addressing the people, he said : You walk over my head while I sleep ; but you now see the wise white men respect me. Had they not been our friends, we must have fled before the enemy.

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Turning to Dleloqua, he continued : I hear you my father, I understand you my father, your words are true and good for the ear. May evil overtake the disobedient ! May they be broken in pieces ! Be silent ye women ! said he, addressing them, ye who plague your husbands, who steal their goods, and give them to others ; be silent and hinder not your husbands and your children by your evil words. Be silent ye kidney-eaters (turning to the old men), ye who are fit for nothing but to prowl about whenever an ox is killed. If our cattle are carried off where will you get kidneys ?N

Notes: ! The Bachoana imagine that none who eat of the kidney of an ox will have any offspring ; on this account no one except the aged will taste them. Hence the contemptuous term of kidney-eater, synonymous with dotard.

Then addressing the warriors, there are many of you, he said, who do not deserve to eat out of a bowl, but only out of a broken pot, think on what has been said, and obey without murmuring. I say again, ye warriors, prepare for battle ! Let your shields be strong, your quivers full of arrows, and your battle-axes as sharp as hunger ! Turning once more to the women, he said : Prevent not the warrior from going out to battle by your cunning insinuations. No ! rouse the warrior to glory, and he will return with honourable scars, fresh marks of valour will cover his thighs, and we shall then renew the war song and the dance, and relate the story of our conquest

At the conclusion of this speech the air was rent with acclamations, the whole assembly occasionally joining in the dance, the women frequently taking the weapons out of the hands of the men and brandishing them in the most violent manner ; and people of all ages continued using the most extravagant and frantic gestures for nearly two hours. Notwithstanding this sudden outburst of popular enthusiasm, however, great uneasiness prevailed, and everything was prepared for instant flight if it should be necessary.

That night people arrived from Lithako with the intelligence that the Mantatees were at a town belonging to the Barolong, not far from that place, and that Mahumapelo, the chief of Nokuning, a town eighteen miles north-east of Lithako, was preparing for flight. They learnt also that these terrible marauders had seized one of the Tamaha chiefs, and making him a prisoner, had forced him to become their guide towards Lithako.

And one of the fugitives who had escaped from their hands declared that their intention was first to plunder the towns of Lithako and Koeromanie, and then proceed towards Griquatown. The man declared that there were yellow people among the Mantatees, armed with strange weapons and wearing cotton garments, that they were an innumerable multitude, countless as the spikes of grass that wave on the plains of the wilderness.

In this state of suspense Mr. George Thompson determined to ride on horseback to Lithako, to obtain if possible more definite information as to the movements of these dreaded enemies. Mr. Moffat volunteered to accompany him, and they accordingly started on the 16th of June, attended by a Mochoana servant. They did not, however, proceed farther than the Koeromanie fountain when they were forced to turn back, owing to damage done to the waggon which accompanied them. The inhabitants of Koeromanie were actively preparing for war, making great quantities of poisoned arrows and other arms, and keeping up the war dance by moonlight the whole night long, to a sort of monotonous music.

Two days thus passed in great suspense. News then arrived that the chief of Nokuning had abandoned his town, and that the Mantatees were within a short distance of it. In the evening, whilst sitting conversing upon the state of affairs, some one thundered at the door, and on its being opened, Sampin, one of Mothibi's captains, rushed in the very picture of terror and dismay, calling out the Mantatees ! the Mantatees !

At first it was thought they were entering the town, but this proved not to be the case ; certain intelligence had, however, arrived that they had entered Nokuning, and that this fierce and formidable enemy was now within eighty miles of the mission station, which at the rate at which they travelled was not three days' march. The unwarlike character of the Bachoana and their unfitness to withstand such formidable assailants was strikingly manifested in the total absence of anything like system or decision in the plans of defence in the several communities, who were now being destroyed piecemeal in their separate hordes.

The following morning the cattle were kept near the town ; the people began to bury their most valuable effects and their corn in large earthen jars, and the missionaries were likewise preparing their waggons to flee at a moment's notice. At this critical juncture Mr. Thompson determined to set out by himself to discover, if possible, the true position and movements of the steadily approaching enemy, and for this purpose he started once more on the 19th of June, attended only by a Bachoana guide.

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The great-place of the Batlapin had been, as we have already seen, near the old ruins of Lithako, until the death of Molehabangwe. The town was then moved some five miles farther to the north-east. After a time Mothibi removed again with a portion of the tribe nearer to Koeromanie, leaving the remainder under the charge of a subordinate chief named Levenkel. On the 20th the scouting party arrived near Lithako.

Extensive fields of millet were found on every side, but there was an unusual stillness about both the fields and town as they approached. The town was found entirely deserted by its inhabitants, not a human being was to be seen, although a few hours before it had contained from six to eight thousand people. They had evidently fled in great precipitation, for in a number of the huts the cooking pots were found standing with food in them half dressed. It was evident that the approach of the enemy had taken them by surprise.

The only sign of life was a large white vulture perched like the genius of desolation upon a tall camel-thorn that shaded the hut of some chieftain.

Proceeding a few miles beyond, their horses becoming faint and weary, Mr. Thompson and Arend, a half-caste who had joined him on the road, were discussing whether they should descend into the valley to allow their horses to drink, when Arend suddenly called out " the Mantatees ! the Mantatees ! we are surrounded ! " And there sure enough, on looking towards the spot to which he pointed, the Mantatees were to be seen covering a very extensive tract of ground, marching on in an immense black mass in the valley below, pushing on towards the very river to which but a moment before the scouting party had intended to take their horses to drink. This was the first time that vast invading horde was ever seen by a white man.

With considerable presence of mind Arend immediately said " don't move, or they will see us ! "

Accordingly they remained for some time motionless as the trees around them. It was soon seen that they were not perceived, as the invaders continued their course towards the river, trampling into blackness the grassy meadows over which they passed. The scouts were somewhat relieved at being undiscovered, although expecting every moment to find their retreat intercepted by some other division coming in an opposite direction.

Not satisfied however with what they had seen, they determined if possible to get a front view by trying to gain some rising ground in the direction of Old Lithako. They succeeded in doing this, by dashing at a gallop through the river just as the van of the enemy was rushing into the pools a few hundred yards higher up, and putting spurs to their horses, they gained a position overlooking the site of the old town.

They had not been there five minutes when they saw the savages rushing like hungry wolves into the few huts which were left. At the same moment some of the Mantatees discovered the scouts on the hill above, and a large body of them at once advanced towards the horsemen. The rapid advance of the savages gave the lookout party no time for leisure, and they were obliged again to put spurs to their horses and gallop to another eminence at a little distance.

Here they again turned to look at the enemy, but seeing nothing of them, they made towards the plain over which they had previously passed. This movement was a most fortunate one for them, for they had scarcely proceeded five hundred yards when, on looking back, they observed the height they had just left occupied by a crowd of the enemy, who had evidently approached unperceived under cover of a ravine ; and had not Mr. Thompson and his two companions started off the instant they did, they would certainly have been surrounded before they could have noticed their advance.

After this fortunate escape, Mr. Thompson made the best of his way back to Koeromanie, where he arrived about midnight after a long moonlight ride. The Griquas had not yet arrived, and the missionaries, seeing no other hope, commenced making preparations for immediate flight.

At daybreak the whole town was astir. Mothibi, the chief, was absent, and a general evacuation of the town was determined upon. By eight o'clock hundreds of pack oxen were continually moving off to the westward, loaded with the most valuable effects of the inhabitants, consisting of utensils of various kinds, wooden and earthen vessels, red paint-stone, powder of blink-klip, corn, karosses, etc., etc.

Meanwhile the lowing of cattle, the wailing of women and children, the feeble and tottering gait of the old and infirm, hurriedly moved from their mats of repose to seek safety in flight, and the sullen despondency of the warriors, formed altogether a scene of distress extremely touching and pitiable.

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About nine the report of a musket was suddenly heard from the entrance of the town, and this instantly followed by a second. A shout of exultation arose from the Bachoana. Two Griqua horsemen, the avant-couriers of the rest, had arrived to announce the advance of their countrymen, whom they had left forty miles behind, tarrying to refresh their horses. The intention of the main body was not to continue their march until the next day.

One of the horsemen was however dispatched with urgent entreaties that they would push on at once to Koeromanie, before the town was entirely deserted. At noon Mothibi returned, but when night came on and darkness began to surround the place, and no Griquas had yet made their appearance, dire apprehensions once more began to seize the inhabitants. The warriors in the town were indeed all awake and watchful, but it was known that if the enemy came before the Griquas, they were ready to fly without resistance and join the women in the mountains.

The night was therefore passed in a state of feverish excitement, till dawn of day, when the missionaries, despairing of the Griquas, ordered the oxen to be put to the waggons in order to retreat with their families without further delay. The Bachoana, seeing this, abandoned all hope of succour, and having no confidence in themselves, prepared also for instant flight. At this moment a cloud of dust was observed to the southward. It rapidly approached, when to the unspeakable joy of all, a troop of horsemen, the Griquas, emerged from it, and entered the town at full gallop.

Though neither disciplined nor accoutred like regular troops, and dressed in a garb both motley and ragged, yet with their glittering muskets and bold bearing they had a very martial appearance. The air was rent with acclamations, never before had such horses, such muskets, such military array, been seen in the land of the Batlapin. They came as defenders in the hour of need, and they were hailed by the paralysed natives as champions and heroes.

The Griquas were under the command of the chiefs Adam and Cornelius Kok, Barend Barends, and Andries Waterboer. Though not exceeding eighty in number, they appeared a very formidable force contrasted with the ill-armed and unwarlike Bachoana. All was now animation and activity. The two missionaries were busy repairing muskets, several of those of the allies being out of order ; many of the Griquas were busy casting bullets, and the Batlapin warriors, with renovated confidence, were burnishing their assagais and whetting their battle-axes.

A pitso was held, during which a woman of heroic mien, contrary to the custom of the country, rushed into the midst and addressed the meeting with much energy : " Ye Griquas ! should any of my countrymen turn their backs in the day of battle, shoot them, destroy them without mercy, such cowards deserve not to live !

After this a general feasting commenced throughout the town, at which all classes, both of the Bachoana and Griquas, gave themselves up to indulgence without regard to the imminent danger which threatened them. Intelligence was brought that the Mantatees were still at Lithako, regaling themselves on the provisions which the inhabitants had abandoned in their hurried flight. Some fugitive Bushmen also met the Mantatees.

They had been hunting, and had just slain a quagga, when they were set upon by a party of the marauders and deprived of their prey. One of them had received a severe wound in the thigh from some large cutting weapon, differing from any of the arms of the Bachoana tribes.

Relieved from immediate anxiety by the receipt of this news, the warriors of both nations devoted themselves without control to feasting and merriment. More cattle were slaughtered, and the roasting and riot went on around the fires without intermission, as if they expected to eat no more for a month to come.

The Griqua chiefs decided to halt for two or three days before making an onward movement, for the double purpose of refreshing their horses and awaiting the arrival of a reinforcement of their countrymen. This reinforcement was now on its way, and consisted of twenty horsemen and about fifty men with waggons and pack oxen, thus forming altogether the greatest warlike expedition the Griquas had ever been engaged in since they were a community.

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Upon Mr. Melvill's arrival it was settled that Waterboer should act as chief-captain on the expedition against the Mantatees. Mothibi and his chiefs were invited to join the commando with their warriors, but with an intimation that in the event of a battle being inevitable, the Bachoana must strictly refrain from the slaughter of women and children (as was their barbarous practice), and that all the enemy who laid down their arms should receive quarter as prisoners of war.

On Tuesday the 24th of June they commenced their onward march. At the Makuareen river Mothibi joined the commando with five hundred warriors, and as many more were ordered to join from the towns to the westward under his control. A party of ten Griquas, commanded by Waterboer and accompanied by Mr. Moffat, was sent forward to reconnoitre the enemy. They started at daybreak, and about ten o'clock came in sight of the Mantatees, who were encamped on a declivity a short distance south of the town of Lithako, while a second and more numerous division occupied the town itself.

This great host, when first seen by Moffat, Waterboer, and the reconnoitring party, seemed at the distance an immense black patch on the opposite declivity, from which many small columns of smoke were rising, which made the onlookers imagine when they first saw it that it was not a dense mass of human beings, but a great area where the grass had been set on fire during the night ; but what was their astonishment when on closer inspection they found that this immense black-covered surface formed the camp of but one portion of the enemy ?

As the reconnoitring party drew nearer, their approach was discovered, when considerable confusion was seen in the camp, while the war axes and brass ornaments could be distinctly seen glittering in the sun.

Even here famine, their greatest enemy, had already commenced dogging the steps of this vast multitude : dead bodies reduced to skeletons were found lying about, some had evidently been in search of water and there expired. The scouts approached within a couple of musket-shots from the enemy. While standing in this position, they noticed that all the cattle were enclosed in the centre of the vast host.

No one came near them, except a few warriors who in a threatening attitude dared them to approach, but the spears they hurled fell short of the mark. They attempted to parley, and approached within a hundred yards, when the savages uttering a hideous yell, several hundred armed men rushed forward in a furious manner, throwing their weapons with such velocity that the scouting party had scarcely time to turn their affrighted steeds and gallop clear of them. Even as it was, one of the Griquas narrowly escaped being knocked from his horse by one of their war clubs.

After this little episode the advance guard of the Griquas retired behind a hill about a mile from the savages, where they off-saddled and remained all night.

The Mantatees, as seen and described by Moffat, were a tall, robust people, in features resembling the Bachoana ; their dress consisted of prepared oxhides hanging double over their shoulders. The men during the engagement which followed were nearly naked, having on their heads a round cockade of black ostrich feathers. Their ornaments were large copper rings, sometimes eight in number, worn round their necks, with numerous arm, leg, and ear rings of the same metal. Their weapons were war axes of various shapes, assagais, and clubs ; into many of their knobsticks were inserted pieces of iron resembling a sickle, but more curved, sometimes to a circle, and sharp on the outside.

Their language was only a dialect of Sechoana, and they were more rude and barbarous than the tribes around Lithako. Such then were the enemies these Griquas had to encounter.

At break of day, after passing an almost sleepless night on the plain, the Griqua commando was in motion, and proceeding forward joined the party in advance a little after sunrise. It was about eight o'clock when the Griquas galloped up towards the enemy. It was hoped that the imposing appearance of about one hundred horsemen would so intimidate the invaders as to bring them to a parley.

This however failed, for although they were encamped on an open plain, they continued sitting, without appearing in the least alarmed at the approach of the Griqua cavalry. A few only were seen packing their oxen, and a large herd of cattle was enclosed in their centre, surrounded by men, women, and children. The whole of this division was estimated at not less than fifteen thousand.

The most advanced of the Griquas drew up in front of them, at a distance of about one hundred and fifty yards ; when suddenly, before half the Griquas had come up, they raised with hoarse stentorian voices, calculated to daunt, their frightful savage yell or war whoop, and threw out two wings, as if with the intention of surrounding the advanced party ; hundreds of their warriors then rushed forward, furiously discharging their clubs and javelins.

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So very sudden and impetuous was this assault that the Griqua chiefs and their men had scarcely time to turn their horses' heads and gallop out of reach of their missiles. Their appearance was truly formidable. Their warriors were very tall, athletic men, quite black,N with no other clothing than a sort of apron round their loins. Besides the plumes of black ostrich feathers upon their heads, their assagais, battle-axes, and clubs, they had large oval shields, which when rushing forward they held close to the ground on the left side.

Notes: This arose from the fact that they were smeared all over with grease and soot, or charcoal, instead of red ochre. We shall discover as we proceed that different tribes had special war colours with which they painted themselves.

The Griquas having only fifteen rounds of ammunition each, and finding what a fierce and audacious enemy they had to deal with, reserved their fire in order to shoot deliberately. As soon therefore as they were out of reach of the enemy, the Griquas faced about, Waterboer and some of the others dismounting. Waterboer levelled the first of their warriors, and immediately afterwards some of the others following his example fired upon the foremost of the advancing enemy and brought them to the ground.

Somewhat daunted by this, the wings retreated upon the main body, crouching behind their shields whenever a shot was fired. Moffat states that it was confidently expected that they would be cowed when they saw their warriors fall by an invisible weapon, and it was hoped that they would be humbled and alarmed, and thus further bloodshed be prevented ; but though they beheld with astonishment the dead and the stricken warriors writhing in the dust, the majority looked with lion-like fierceness at the horsemen, and yelled vengeance, wrenching the weapons from the hands of their dying companions to supply those they had discharged at their antagonists.

In the meanwhile the Batlapin warriors came running down from the heights to join the combat, but little advantage was gained from their aid, for only a small number had courage to venture near enough to reach the enemy with their arrows, and all of them fled with the utmost precipitation whenever a score or two of the more warlike Mantatees rushed forth against them.

Again the Griquas approached nearer, when the enemy a second time suddenly poured forth their armed bands upon them, more numerous and fierce than the first. The Griquas dismounted to take better aim, for shots fired from horseback produced very little effect, and they had no ammunition to spare.

This mode of fighting however was not without danger, for the onset of the enemy was so fierce and sudden, and they ran with so much swiftness, endeavouring each time to surround the small party, that very brief space was allowed to jump again into the saddles and gallop out of reach. The firing, though without order, was very destructive, as each took a steady aim, and thus many of their chief men, although they shewed undaunted spirit, fell victims to their own temerity.

In this manner, alternately advancing and retreating, and pausing occasionally to give them an opportunity of coming to terms, the conflict continued for about two hours and a half. During the whole of this time the enemy evinced a very bold and resolute spirit, continually rushing out upon the horsemen, treading over the bodies of their fallen countrymen, with a furious and desperate courage. But when they found that all their efforts to surround or overtake the Griquas were in vain, and that their bravest warriors were falling thick on the field, mown down by invisible weapons against which their shields formed no defence, their audacity began to abate, though they still shewed no intention of retreating.

The Griquas had endeavoured to draw their warriors as far as possible into the plain, and then by galloping between them and the main body, to cut them off, and so decide the conflict ; but they speedily became aware of this design, and kept closer to the circle of women and children which surrounded the cattle, appearing obstinately determined to stand by them. The Griquas then approached more closely, and a number dismounting occupied a rising ground, from which they could distinguish and select the warriors now driven in upon the multitude.

Every shot was deadly, and the greatest confusion and dismay began to manifest themselves among the Mantatees. At length increasing the confusion all the cattle burst out through the crowd which encircled them, and were taken possession of by the Griquas. The whole multitude then began to move off slowly in a westerly direction, quickening their pace as they retreated. The horsemen attempted to intercept them, when they immediately descended towards the ravine, as if determined not to return by the way they came.

This they crossed, but were again intercepted. After they had fled about half a mile in the direction of Lithako, where the other division of their forces lay encamped, the Griquas turned their flank with a view of driving them to the eastward and preventing them making a junction. Thus driven in an opposite direction, they ascended a rising ground, when suddenly wheeling about they rushed down upon their pursuers with as great fury as at the beginning. The Griquas being close upon them, it was with the utmost difficulty that many escaped falling into their hands.

Great confusion, says Moffat, now prevailed, the ground being very stony, which rendered it difficult to manage the horses. At this moment an awful scene was presented to the view. The undulating country around was covered with warriors all in motion, so that it was difficult, as a few of the Batlapin had rallied again and were once more bestirring themselves, to say who were enemies and who were friends.

Clouds of dust were rising from the immense masses, who appeared flying with terror, or pursuing with fear. To the alarming confusion was added the bellowing of oxen, the vociferations of the yet unvanquished warriors, mingled with the groans of the dying, the piercing wail of women, and the cries from infant voices.

After this charge, the Mantatees prosecuted their course as at first, and in spite of the destructive fire of their pursuers, who still endeavoured to turn them, effected a junction with their countrymen. Just as they entered the town, being reinforced by several thousands of fresh warriors, they once more sallied out to battle ; and it was not until they found their utmost efforts to close with their assailants fruitless, and their two principal chiefs and bravest leaders had fallen, that they were with great slaughter driven back.

The whole united horde began now to move slowly out of the town, setting it on fire as they departed. The flames and smoke bursting from the thatched houses, and the clouds of dust raised by such a multitude and rolling over the swarthy host which was closely followed by the Griqua horsemen, gave a wild and striking effect to the scene, not easily described.

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As soon as the Mantatees got out from among the houses, they again made an attempt to surround their pursuers, while encumbered by the huts and half -blinded by the smoke arid dust. A band of warriors crept round among the bushes unperceived, and were coming in behind when they were discovered.

A party of the Griquas was sent to encounter them, who drove them back to the main body. They continued to retreat to the north-east with more order than was expected. The armed men remained in the rear and on each wing, and occasionally turned upon the Griquas, who followed them about eight miles beyond Lithako. The pursuit was then given up about half-past three o'clock, and as soon as the Griquas had left them, they all sat down on the plain.

When the two divisions of the Mantatees joined, says Mr. Melvill, they appeared extremely numerous.N They extended in a dense crowded mass, about five hundred yards broad and a hundred yards deep. If the number be computed by the space occupied, allowing only a square yard to each individual, they must have amounted to fifty thousand persons.

Notes: The apparent apathy of the second and more powerful division of the Mantatee horde during the early part of the battle appears surprising.

Moffat says that during the fight it was observed that some women went backwards and forwards to the town, only half a mile distant, with the utmost indifference ; and that while the commando was struggling between hope and despair of being able to rout the enemy, information was brought that half of their forces, under Chuane, was reposing in the town, within sound of the guns, perfectly regardless of the fate of the other division, under Karaganye. These must have been names given by the Batlapin to these chiefs. It is supposed that they possessed entire confidence in the yet invincible army of the latter, being the more warlike of the two.

In the meanwhile the Batlapin, who were hanging upon the neighbouring heights watching the issue of the conflict, as soon as they perceived that the Mantatees had taken fairly to flight, came down upon the field of battle like ferocious wolves, to plunder the dead and dying and to glut their vengeance by murdering the wounded and the helpless women and children, dispatching them with their assagais and war axes.

The Batlapin were seen in all directions at this murderous work, and it was only by, striking them and threatening to shoot them that they were compelled to desist. The women were seen in little groups surrounded by these barbarians, who were tearing away beads and brass rings from their necks and arms. A woman was holding out her arms to one of these ruffians, in order that the bracelets might be taken off, but not being able to effect his purpose quickly, the savage cut off both her arms with a battle-axe, and then dispatched her.

The bold and unconquerable spirit of the Mantatee warriors, continues the same eye-witness, formed a striking contrast to the pusillanimity of the Batlapin. Many who had been wounded by the first fire of the Griquas were left by the retreat of their countrymen, scattered over the field.

These had been fallen upon by the Batlapin, and slaughtered without mercy ; some were found still defending themselves, with a desperate courage worthy of a better fate. Mr. Melvill states that he saw one man with ten assagais and as many arrows sticking in his body, who kept about forty of his enemies at a distance ; another, severely wounded, fought desperately with one knee on the ground, keeping at bay a band of assailants, and plucking a spear out of his body to throw at them. They seemed to have no idea of yielding or asking for quarter, probably because in their own wars they were not accustomed to give or receive mercy.

It is not in my power, adds Mr. Melvill, to convey any adequate idea of my feelings as I passed over the field after the battle had ended. Dead bodies scattered about, women wounded and left to languish in agony, and little children crying for their mothers, these were objects enough to melt any heart ; but alas ! man in a savage state is altogether selfish and unfeeling, inhuman almost as the beasts of prey.

The dead warriors, though in battle they had displayed amazing agility and swiftness, looked lean and gaunt. They, as well as the women and infirm, had evidently suffered much from hunger. Their natural colour was a shade darker than that of the Bachoana, whom in features they also nearly resembled.

Mr. Moffat, who was present at the battle of Lithako, thus describes the part he took in it. Seeing the savage ferocity of the Bachoana in killing the inoffensive women and children for the sake of a few paltry rings, or of being able to boast that they had killed some of the Mantatees, he turned his attention to these objects of pity, who were flying in consternation in all directions.

By galloping in amongst them, many of the Bachoana were deterred from their barbarous purpose. It was distressing to see mothers and infants rolling in blood, and the living babe in the arms of the dead mother. All ages and both sexes lay prostrate on the ground.

Shortly after they began to retreat, the women, seeing mercy was shewn to them, instead of flying generally sat down and baring their bosoms exclaimed " I am a woman ! I am a woman ! " It seemed impossible for the men to yield. There were several instances of wounded men being surrounded by fifty Batlapin, but it was not until life was almost extinct that a single one would allow himself to be conquered.

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This authority saw more than one instance of a man fighting boldly with ten or twelve spears and arrows fixed in his body. The cries of infants who had fallen from the breasts of their mothers, who had fled or were slain, were distinctly heard. Several times he narrowly escaped himself from the spears and war axes of the wounded, while busy in rescuing the women and children.

The men, struggling with death, would raise themselves from the ground, and discharge their weapons at any one of their conquerors within their reach ; their hostile and revengeful spirit only ceased when life was extinct. Instead of laying down their arms and suing for quarter, some actually fought on their knees, their legs being broken.

In this deadly conflict not one on the side of the Griquas was killed, and only one slightly wounded. One Mochoana lost his life while too eagerly seeking for plunder. The slain of the enemy numbered between four and five hundred, while a large portion of the cattle which accompanied them fell into the hands of the victors.

As an instance of the innate ferocity of even the so-called mildest of these tribes, Mothibi, the paramount chief, when remonstrated with on the indiscriminate massacre of women and children after the repulse of the Mantatees, and informed that they must be given over to the conquerors, started up in a rage, and with a large stone knocked down one woman, and one of his attendants immediately stabbed to the heart a male prisoner standing by him.

With such an example set to his subjects, how can we wonder that although Moffat declares that he shrank from detailing all the feats of savage barbarity and lion-like ferocity which he witnessed among the Mantatees, he is compelled to add that no less revengeful and furious was the spirit manifested by the Batlapin and other tribes, who though the most arrant cowards compared with the invaders, shewed that they were, if less inured to war, as cruel as those who for years had been imbruing their hands in the blood of thousands. The wounded enemy they baited with clubs, assagais, and stones, accompanied with yellings and countenances indicative of fiendish joy.

The hapless women found no quarter, especially if they possessed anything like ornaments to tempt the cupidity of their plunderers. A few copper rings round the neck, from which it was difficult to take them, was the signal for the already uplifted battle-axe to sever the head from the trunk, or the arm from the body, when the plunderer would grasp with a smile his bloody trophies.

Others, in order to be able to return home with the triumph of victors, would pursue the screaming boy or girl, and not satisfied with severing a limb from the human frame, would exhibit their contempt for the victim of their cruel revenge, by seizing the head and hurling it from them, or kicking it to a distance.

Many of the Mantatees were suffering dreadfully from want ; even in the heat of the battle the poorer class seized pieces of meat and devoured them raw. At the close of the contest Mr. Moffat and Mr. Melvill collected many women and children, but it was most difficult to get them forward to a place of safety. They willingly followed until they came to a piece of meat which had been thrown away in the flight, when nearly all would halt and tear and devour it. Some prisoners were so extremely weak that they were obliged to be left behind.

From the prisoners it was learnt that the Mantatees had intended to commence their march towards Koeromanie the very day they were encountered, and had slaughtered cattle to make themselves strong. They had driven out the inhabitants of Nokuning, ransacked and burnt that town, and were about to finish with Lithako in the same manner, when the thunder and lightning of the Griquas, as they termed the musketry, drove them back.

Mr. Melvill in his report gives the following description of their dress and weapons. Their dress consisted in general of brayed skins, hanging loose over their shoulders. Some of the chiefs had karosses of a superior description, and not a few wore long loose shawls of cotton cloth. Some of this, which was examined by Mr. Thompson, was stated by him to be of Surat manufacture, and must therefore have been procured from some of the Portuguese settlements on the east coast, or from the Moors of Inhambane.

Most of the women were almost destitute of clothing, having for the greater part only a small piece of skin suspended round the loins. The men, having thrown off their mantles during the engagement, were entirely naked, with the exception of the piece of skin round their loins. Their ornaments were the black ostrich feathers and copper rings before mentioned, with large copper plates hanging from their ears.

Besides the weapons in common use, many of them had a weapon of a very peculiar construction, being an iron blade of a circular shape, with a cutting sabre edge, fastened to a stick with a heavy knobbed head, which was used both as a missile and in close combat. They had also large shields of bullocks' hide, which, like those of the Kaffirs, covered almost the whole body.

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Previous to the inroads of these Mantatees, the tribes between Lithako and the Bakuena were first the division of the Batlapin at Nokuning, whose chief was Mahumapela ; three days beyond this was the great-place of the Barolong, under the chief Mashow or Matlou. From this to the territory of the Bahurutsi, five days, and one day beyond them a very large tribe under a chief called Makapan.

This was the Batlou, an offshoot of the Barolong, who migrated in a northerly direction. A day beyond them were the Bakuena, extending thence to the eastward to a few days’ journey from Delagoa Bay. It is of this group of which we shall have to treat after completing our investigation of the Batlapin and the Barolong. Most of these tribes had been exposed to the attacks of the Mantatees, and after their defeat at Lithako the retreating enemy once more began to spread the terror of their name among the Barolong.

They attacked and plundered three different towns, and even threatened to turn once more on Koeromanie to revenge their loss, supposing that by that time the horses and guns had departed, while they knew that the Batlapin, whom they considered as the dust of their feet, would be utterly unable to resist them.

As soon as the inhabitants of Koeromanie heard this, confusion and dismay once more reigned amongst the Batlapin, and everything was prepared for instant flight. Night but added to their terrors, as they feared that the break of day might be heralded by the yells of their terrible enemies ; while the cry of "the Mantatees ! " went through the hearts of thousands like an electric shock.

Those who witnessed it affirm that it is impossible to describe the intensity of feeling exhibited among the crowds of excited and panic-stricken people, who were scattering themselves of their own accord to elude the grasp of these ferocious invaders. Ultimately and unexpectedly, however, these dreaded foes turned their attacks once more against the Barolong clans, and Koeromanie was left, after all the alarms, unmolested.

As these formidable hordes marched along, the entire country surrounding them and in their trail swarmed with stragglers and small detached parties. Most of these were found to be in a state of abject wretchedness and utter starvation. Some were found literally feasting on the dead bodies of their companions. This scarcity of provisions had been severely felt before their repulse at Lithako, where the scouting party, as already noticed, saw the remains of several who had died from exhaustion ; and yet herds of cattle were found in the possession of their warriors.

This apparent paradox, that members of a conquering army which captured all before it should be perishing from hunger is explained by the fact that while the leading chiefs and the chosen bands of warriors, who immediately surrounded their persons as a life guard, were able to feast on the captured oxen, their auxiliaries, or those who would be looked upon as but of second rank, merely obtained an occasional banquet on the eve of an expected battle, to renew their strength and fit them for the contest ; while around these were swarms of camp followers, vassals, and slaves, derived in a great measure from the conquered tribes, who were almost entirely dependent for their commissariat upon whatever the veld would supply through which they were passing.

Under any circumstances the condition of these hangers-on must have been pitiable, while after the least reverse occasioning increased rapidity of movement, the horrors of famine, intensified by the accumulation of their numbers, stared them in the face ; and thus while the masses of warriors moved in compact bodies, these unfortunates swarmed along the line of march in their endeavours to obtain the means of subsistence.

But it was not only in the Batlapin and the Barolong territory, with all their conquests and the many thousands of cattle they must have captured, that numbers of their hordes were dying of hunger. Their march for hundreds of miles might have been tracked by human bones. When they were attacked at Lithako, not having seen horsemen before, they imagined that horse and rider constituted one animal ; but this, it was afterwards learnt, did not intimidate them ; for even after that their determination was fixed upon attacking the Colony, having heard there were immense flocks of sheep there. Had they succeeded in reaching the Orange river or the border of the Colony, where they would most probably have been defeated, the destruction of human life would have been even more dreadful, as they must have perished from want when retreating through the exasperated tribes they had vanquished in quest of a place of rest, as their own country by that time would have been occupied by the then-rising Abaka-Zulu chief Moselekatze.

After the repulse of the Mantatees and the breaking up of the combined hordes which had threatened to attack Koeromanie, a state of confusion and unrest spread rapidly through the country. Wars and rumours of wars were heard of everywhere. The great Matabili storm-cloud had risen, and thus the shadow of a still more terrible enemy than the Mantatees was already darkening the borders of the beautiful and fertile country of the Bakuena ; the powerful tribe of the Bangwaketse had been repulsed, and their old warrior chief Makaba slain, the broken bands of the Mantatees were harrying the country to the south-east, and pressing on the rear of the retreating Basutu.

Such commotions, writes Moffat, were unknown within the memory of the oldest native. Tradition could give no parallel. They existed as far northward as our knowledge of the tribes extended. Many tribes once powerful and prosperous were almost extinct, and it now became more and more evident that had not the Mantatees been defeated before old Lithako, the Bachoana territory, Griqualand, and the Orange river valley would have been swept of their inhabitants. The savage conquerors would have been formidable enemies to the Colony, and would in all probability have fallen in thousands before the sweeping bomb or rocket, while the scattered remains of the aborigines must have either perished in the deserts or fallen under the iron yoke of their neighbours. The infection of war and plunder was such that scarcely a tribe or town in the whole country was exempt, while to secure the much-coveted plunder, the basest as well as the most miserable acts of treachery were frequently resorted to. The
Batlapin, who of all the native tribes had suffered the least, owing to the proximity of the mission, instead of being thankful, authorised one of their number, the chief's brother Molala (the Poor One) to go with a body of warriors and attack the outposts of their old foes, the once formidable Bangwaketse.

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They proceeded as far as the Barolong territory, where they met the chief Gontse, who received and fed them, being related to the reigning family of the Batlapin. Gontse dissuaded them from the daring attempt, which would in all probability terminate in their destruction. Molala, convinced of this, resolved on returning, but before doing so treacherously watched an opportunity, after they had been treated with so much hospitality, of seizing the Barolong cattle whilst they were grazing away from the town, and having two or three guns compelled the owners to flee. Even after this capture, the same authority assures us that the Batlapin continued extremely unsettled. Indeed the whole country appeared like an ocean in a storm, its inhabitants like the waves, alternately rolling forward and receding, carrying with them devastation and misery. Numerous successful commandos from the south wore out the spirits of the people, and compelled them to lead a vagrant life, ready to start on the first alarm.

From 1823 to about the end of 1828 the Koranas once more commenced their northern depredations, and frequently during that period harassed both the Batlapin and the Barolong, committing many atrocities on several occasions, not only burning down the villages or kraals, but also butchering indiscriminately the women and children. One of their last marauding expeditions into the Batlapin country took place in 1828, and ended disastrously for them. It appears, says Moffat, that the party reached the Malopo, and had taken a drove of Barolong cattle, when they wandered from their course and came in contact with the subjects of a powerful chief of the Batlapin. One of these, a man of influence, was shot. The news was instantly carried to headquarters, and a plan was laid by which the marauders fell into an ambuscade, whence only nine narrowly escaped with their lives, leaving all they had in their possession behind them.

This was among the last efforts in a northerly direction of the hordes of these ruthless desperadoes, who had been for the five years mentioned scattering throughout the Bachoana tribes devastation, famine, and death ; and had made repeated but unsuccessful attacks on the people of Moselekatze. They had filled up their cup of iniquity, and there had been no power to arrest or overthrow them. The Bushmen, pestilence, prodigality, and beasts of prey at last deprived them of their thousands of cattle ; disease and famine thinned their camps, till at length, in places which had echoed with the shouts of savage triumph over slaughtered tribes and the noise of rude revelry and debauch, nothing was heard but the howl of the hyena as an appropriate funeral dirge over the remains of a people, the victims of insubordination, ferocity, and lust.

By 1829 the overwhelming power of the Matabili had already destroyed many powerful tribes, and saturated the Bakone or Bakuena hills and plains with blood, following up the destruction commenced by the Mantatees. With regard to the Batlapin, during these occurrences Mahura, a younger son of Molehabangwe and brother of Mothibi, had stationed himself at Old Lithako, and the nearest outposts of the dreaded Matabili were still far removed to the eastward. After a time, however, upon their nearer approach, and their occupying the country to the banks of the Malopo, this chief removed to Taung, where he was joined by other Batlapin and Banairi.

The incessant alarms and losses to which the Batlapin were exposed led to the ultimate breaking up of their tribe. No further help was to be obtained from the Griquatown mission people, they therefore fled first to the intervening Bushman territory, and thence to the Vaal, whence some of them never returned ; while fragments of tribes scattered throughout the country gathered by degrees round the mission station at Koeromanie. It was during this period of turmoil that Mothibi abandoned his town near Koeromanie, with the intention of following the Griqua chief Adam Kok to Philippolis, incited doubtless to this step by the recollection of the protection afforded by the Kok family to his father's tribe at the time of their great distress ; but this movement was unpopular with many of the Batlapin, and a great number remained with his brother Mahura, who thus obtained the sobriquet Mapudianye, meaning " the Gatherer." This became his nom de guerre ; and while Mothibi was migrating still farther to the southward, Mahura occupied Lithakong, repulsing many foreign invaders and rapidly increasing his power and influence.

Mothibi only went as far as the junction of the Great Riet river and the Vaal, where he located himself ; the adherents of Mahura, however, considered that he had deserted his post by leaving the country when in distress, and thus a considerable number of them renounced their allegiance and on the death of Mothibi, Molala, his next brother, was instituted chief-paramount by them ; but he died young, having been killed and devoured by lions whilst hunting near the Vaal. The sceptre did not, however, revert to Mothibi's son, Gasibone (It does not see), but passed on to Mankuruane, the son of Molala, when Mahura be- came his guardian and regent, and another uncle, Saku, his commander in chief or great fighting captain.

Henceforth the tribe became divided into two distinct branches, one under Mankuruane, the other under Gasibone. Rivalries and jealousies sprang up between them, while each maintained that his was the legal right to supreme authority over the tribe. This separation seems to have arisen partly from the ambition of Mahura, and his hostility to " the house " of his nephew. He was described by Captain Harris as a portly personage, of exceedingly forbidding manners, and unprepossessing exterior. Perhaps also a circumstance mentioned by another writer may throw some light upon the matter. Mahura was said to have been a churchgoer and a friend to the missionaries, while Gasibone was wild and unruly. A third or minor branch of the same tribe was formed under Jantje, who fled with a portion of the Batlapin towards the junction of the Kolong and the Vaal, and settled at Likhatlong.

We will now proceed to the next tribe presented for our consideration.

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THE BAROLONG


If we are to be guided by the traditions of this tribe, as well as the siboko adopted by their ancestors, their ancient name must have been Ba-bena-tsipe, the Sons of the Dancers of Iron, a title which seems to indicate the skill of their predecessors in the working of metals. The name Ba-rotou was adopted after one of their early chiefs, who had the sobriquet of Rotou, but the recollection of the name of the particular individual who had this addition to his ordinary designation appears now to have been lost, and all the attempts of the writer to make the discovery have failed.

The name of the great ancestor of their chiefs, Noto, the Hammer for Iron, seems to demonstrate the antiquity of their previous appellation, and as they state that he lived very far to the north, the fact of the eighteen generations which have intervened between his days and our own would prove, if we calculate (owing to the frequent lengthened minorities which occur among these tribes in the line of succession) each generation at a probable length of thirty-five years, that he must have lived some time in the thirteenth century, and certainly, if we take the shorter calculation of thirty years, not later than the early portion of the fourteenth, and therefore when, according to their own tribal traditions, as well as those of the other races we have already investigated, they must have lived not only very far to the north, but also, in all probability, before their ancestors had arrived as far south as the intra-lacustrine region then occupied by the fore-fathers of the present Hottentots of South Africa.

The Barolong resemble the other portion of the Bachoana race in character, customs, and modes of thought, but there is such a variation in their language that the dialect which they speak has been called Serolong, in contradistinction to the Sechoana spoken by the latter, a fact which would seem to indicate that the separation of these two groups must have taken place at an early period of their migration to the south.

These people appear to have been great barterers. Natives, says Broadbent, came from distant parts to traffic with the Barolong. Some brought iron, of which they made hoes, spears, axes, and knives. Others brought brass rings, copper beads, and wire. They also traded in the hides and skins of all kinds of animals found in the country, and some brought a dark mineral powder, with which, mixed with fresh butter, they anointed their heads. The Barolong were also noted for their manufacture of fur karosses, which were much valued. The most prized were those made of the skins of the panther, leopard, wild cat, and jackal. The commoner ones were made of the skins of antelopes.

The Barolong and the Batlapin were the greatest hunters of the jackal, an animal which abounded throughout the plains of Seghoya and the entire country towards the Malopo. When engaged upon these hunting expeditions, M. Arbousset informs us that they went for days into the more desert parts of the country, or rather into those portions inhabited by only the wild game and the Bushmen, with their packs of little meagre dogs, singing their hunting songs, of which the following was their favourite upon such occasions : —

Pukuyne ! Hollo ! Jackal !
Unketele, unketele ; Pay me a visit, pay me a visit ;
Ki gu etetse, ki gu etetse, I have paid you a visit, I have paid you a visit,
Ka linao. On my feet.

Thus, armed with light assagais, they animated themselves and their dogs, pursuing the flying jackal at full speed, which they declare to be "the son of a father whose skin was worth a heifer of two seedtimes " (two years old).

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The weapons of the Barolong were of the same description as those of the Batlapin, with the exception of the shield, which was square instead of the peculiar shapes used by the latter. They seem however to have possessed the same natural timidity as the rest of the Bachoana, and as a race were not a whit more warlike than the cowardly Batlapin themselves, who, as we have seen, were only brave when they found their antagonists weaker than themselves, or when they had defenceless women and children to deal with.

In reviewing the list of their early chiefs, little is known of any of them. Molotoe, as his name seems to imply, is said to have been skilful in inventions and resources, a statement which probably refers to the manufacture of iron.

It would seem however certain that the tribe was always more numerous and powerful than any of the other Bachoana which had preceded them, as we find at the very earliest point of contact, when their traditions become more definite with regard to their history, that the Batlapin were living in such a state of subjection under them that the most galling and humiliating tribute was demanded of them, and that when they resisted, the latter were broken and scattered, and had to live an unsettled, fugitive life, very similar to that which the Batlapin themselves imposed upon the Balala at a subsequent period.

Tao (the Lion) appears to have been the Barolong chief who pushed the conquests of his tribe farthest to the southward, when he temporarily established his headquarters at a place which he called Taung (the Place of the Lion), and which has ever since borne his name. It was at this place that the fugitive Batlapin chief Mashoe came unexpectedly in contact with his old foe, whom he outwitted and foiled by his clever stratagems, when a number of Tao's over-confident warriors fell into the fatal trap which had been laid for them.

It was whilst he was staying here that he first brought down the vengeance of the emigrant Koranas upon the Bachoana tribes, by his treacherous assassination of their great chief Kunopsoop and a number of his people ; when a struggle commenced between the two races, which ended in his being driven back again into the interior, a distance of some hundred and fifty miles.

His atrocities, however, although he was looked upon by the Barolong as one of their great chiefs, were not confined to his enemies and the strange tribes with which he came in contact, but even to his own subjects who had offended him he ever proved himself a pitiless and bloodthirsty tyrant. An immense precipice, which crested a hill near his great-place, became the terror of all those who excited his displeasure, the Tarpeian rock over which his victims were hurled, and these not in isolated cases, but frequently, in considerable numbers. His victims, without distinction of either sex or age, were driven shrieking in a crowd over the dizzy edge, while a heap of bleaching bones accumulated at its foot, to mark the implacability of his wrath.

At his death, on account of the increase of the tribe and the ambition of the younger sons, a division took place, and the tribe thenceforth became separated into four distinct branches, viz. :

1. Those under Ratlou, who were styled Baratlou, or the Men of Ratlou ; and from whom, on a further subdivision, the Batlou, or Men of the Elephant, had their origin;
2. Those under Tsili, known as the Baratsili ;
3. Those under Seleka, afterwards called Baseleka ;
4. Those under Rapulana, taking the cognomen of Barapulana, and finally Bapulana, the Men of the Showers, altering like the Batlou the ancient siboko of their tribe, taking as the object of their reverence, in honour of their chief, whatever might be indicated by the name he bore ; thus giving us an illustration of the manner in which a number of these typical emblems were originally selected. Further changes of this kind took place at a subsequent separation, but the majority of the divisions of the main tribe still rejoiced in the name of Barolong, and continued to " dance " and revere the ancient symbol of veneration of their ancestors.

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This first recorded dismemberment is said to have been effected in a peaceful manner, and without any quarrel or civil war. In fact we shall find that the chiefs of some of these separate clans occupied different quarters of the same great agricultural towns, evidently for the sake of mutual defence in case of a hostile attack. On the present occasion, Ratlou, or as he has frequently been called, Tlou, or the Elephant, par excellence, remained with his portion of his father's tribe near the great-place, the others migrating principally in a southerly direction.

Tlou, upon his accession to the chieftainship, followed in his father's footsteps until he raised himself to the highest pinnacle of barbaric fame that any Barolong ruler had ever attained, and acquired dominion over a greater extent of country than any of his predecessors, extending as it did from the Bahurutsi mountains to the Hambana hills, a distance of two hundred miles, while all the intervening tribes became tributary to him.

At his death, however, similar to all such ascendancy among savage nations founded on the energy of a single warrior-chief, the power built up in a lifetime was shattered, and his tribe was divided among his sons. Wars and contentions for supremacy ensued between the rival chieftains, when most of the subject tribes, taking advantage of these domestic dissensions, threw off the Barolong yoke.

Following this suicidal policy, from time to time this once formidable branch of the Barolong tribe divided and subdivided, until it dwindled into a number of petty scattered clans, without cohesion, and ready to fall a prey to every invader that chose to enter and ravage their country.

Seitshiro (the Hiding Place) succeeded his father in the nominal paramount chieftainship. Little is preserved in the tribal traditions with regard to his rule, except the incidents which marked its close, although he lived to an old age. At his death he left, among others, a young wife named Sareni, who had no children and who became a veritable Helen to her tribe. A desperate dispute arose between three of his sons as to who should obtain possession of her, the adherents of the rivals siding with their respective chiefs.

Sets-sero wished to take her as his wife, but the others and those who supported them would not permit it. At length Matlaku (the Roof) seized her, when a civil war, called "the Woman's War," at once broke out among them. The whole inhabitants of the town and the people of the tribe were divided, a great battle was fought in the town itself, much blood was shed in every path between the rivals, the place was sacked, the great-town was " broken to pieces," and most of it burnt to the ground.

Matlaku, however, proving the stronger, retained the precious prize, and carried her off with the remnant of his people, seeking shelter for a time in the Batlapin country.

Some of the defeated claimants migrated towards the north, while others followed Sihunelo and joined him. Sareni herself, after her second husband's death, fled to the southward, upon her tribe being scattered by the Matabili, and lived near the site of the present Bloemfontein, where she survived to an advanced age, calling, according to custom, the son she had from her last union by the name of her former husband.

The meaning of her name Sareni was " the one Wife " ; she was the daughter of a chief named Umkonta, or the Backbone. It was this fatal strife and the destruction of their own great-place in the desperate struggle of the rivals to obtain possession of this sable beauty, which gave rise to the native proverb with regard to this tribe, that " the Barolong are the calves of a great beast that devours the house it lives in."

To enable us to unravel from this point the thread of subsequent Barolong history, it will be better, owing to the number of offshoots into which they were subdivided, that we should pursue our inquiry under the following different heads :

1. The Baratlou and two of its subdivisions,
(a) the Batlou proper,
(b) the clan of the Barolong styling themselves Bataung ;
2. The Barolong of the Baseleka branch ; and
3. The Barapulana.

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1. The Baratlou.

In resuming our investigation of the chiefs of this branch, we discover that upon the death of Seitshiro, and the conclusion of the civil war which ended in the destruction of the great-place of the Barolong and the dispersion of several branches of their tribe, Kehelwa or, as he was also called, Mokoto, or the Rump or Pathfinder,N succeeded as paramount chief, although his supremacy was merely nominal and confined to his acknowledged precedency in all rites and ceremonies, to his admitted claim to the chief joint (the breast) when an animal was slain, and to priority at the feast of firstfruits.

No particular incidents of the rule of this chief have been preserved, except that his great wife was a daughter of Moroko (the Rainmaker), chief of the Baseleka, and sister of Sihunelo ; and that he died leaving his successor Gontse a minor, when Matlaku, his brother and the ravisher of Sareni, became the regent and guardian of his son during his minority.

Notes: This diversity of names arises from the same individual frequently having different names in different portions of his career ; and thus the apparent confusion, one speaking of him by the one appellation, another by another. The meaning of Mokoto is literally that as the rump of an animal invariably follows the head, so the true pathfinder never falters in following the trail of whatever he may be in pursuit of.

Gontse not having undergone the rite of circumcision at the time of his father's death, could not, for this reason, assume the government, and therefore his uncle ruled in his behalf until that act of initiation into manhood could be performed. His younger uncle, Mongale, despised the youthful chieftain on account of his small stature and mild temper, and concluded therefrom that his mental powers must be defective. Urged on by these ideas, he was induced to aspire to the chieftainship himself.

As a preliminary step, taking advantage of a rhinoceros having been killed in a hunt, he privately appropriated the breast of the animal for himself, which was tantamount to proclaiming himself the chief. Gontse pretended not to observe it at the time, but shortly afterwards he seized, with the advice of some of his captains, a number of calves, the property of Mongale, which he carried off and lodged in his own cattle kraal, and placing himself at the gate, dared Mongale to take them away.

Mongale soon found to his chagrin that it would be prudent for him to overlook the capture of the calves, as he discovered that the adherents of the legal chief were more numerous and powerful than he had anticipated, and that his design to seize the chieftainship would be certainly frustrated should he attempt to carry it out. After this no further dispute arose with regard to Gontse's authority, although the great object of the people of this tribe appeared to be, when not engaged in hostile and predatory excursions against their neighbours, to fill up their time in fomenting quarrels and making civil war amongst themselves.

The site which Gontse chose for his chief place stood on an eminence which was destitute of tree or bush, but which, true to their Bachoana instincts, the Barolong covered with cornfields. Meribuwe, another town belonging to them, although not so elevated, was similarly situated, evidently with the intention of preventing surprise through the unseen approach of an enemy. Even as it was, Gontse had been twice attacked by the old Bangwaketsi chief Makaba, who had become the terror of the surrounding tribes ; but then the young Barolong chief attacked others whenever he could do so with any prospect of success. Indeed, writes Campbell, who visited them in 1820, all the nations in this land of strife and blood watched each other, and seized the first opportunity that might occur to attack and carry off cattle.

In 1823 the Mantatees broke suddenly into the Barolong territory, and one town after the other fell into the hands of the marauders, a number were sacked and burnt, many of the inhabitants were slain, and a considerable portion of their cattle was captured ; terror and confusion were spread throughout the country, and bands of fugitives were met with in every direction.

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In 1824 a formidable division of the great marauding horde of invaders doubled on the line of retreat, and once more spread devastation among the Barolong. By this time, when they were visited by Mr. Moffat, some of them had learnt wisdom, and several of the weakened clans had banded together for mutual protection.

Yet notwithstanding their increased strength, their dreaded enemies ravaged the country wherever they went. Thus from Pitsane, a Barolong town one hundred and twenty miles north-east of Lithako, Gontse, the paramount chief, Taoane, the chief of the Baratsili, and Inche, a Barapulana chief, retreated, after the Barolong had been driven out of Kunana or Mosheu by the first onslaught of the Mantatees, though in the previous year they had been joined by clans of the Bahurutsi and Bangwaketse, the latter living in a suburb called Moromoto.

Moffat describes it as a town which covered a large space, and contained upwards of twenty thousand inhabitants, all of whom had congregated there after the attack of the Mantatees. Although Gontse had the greatest number of people under him, Taoane, being considered the most warlike, was the more powerful. At the time of Mr. Moffat's arrival all the inhabitants were in a state of confusion and excitement from a threatened attack of the Mantatees who had remained in the country.

A terrible battle had taken place between them and Sihunelo, the chief of the Baseleka branch of the Barolong, in which a great slaughter among the people of the latter had taken place, when the defeated chief with the remnant of his clan fled towards Pitsane.

On his arrival the alarm was great, as it was said that the pursuing enemy were following on his heels. The chiefs decided that they would not fall back on Koeromanie, as there was an old feud between themselves and the Batlapin, and Sihunelo declared that having lost all, he saw no alternative but to fight or die.

The next day Mr. Moffat and a small party of Barend Barends' Griquas who were with him came suddenly upon the advancing body of the invaders. The Griquas did what they could to turn and drive back the enemy, and were successful as long as they remained on the ground ; but after their departure, the enraged enemy turned again and carried the town by storm, driving the inhabitants before them, and killing a great numberN.

The Bapulana and the Batlou fled to the northward, Sihunelo turned once more to the south, while the head family with the remnant of their clan settled down at Lotlokani (little reeds), a river or spruit running into the Malopo beyond Meritsani River, not far from Mosega.

Notes: Evidence of Silolecoe, a woman nearly eighty years of age, of the Bakubune tribe. She had married a Morolong, and was the mother of the catechist Gabriel, of the Bloemfontein church mission, and was present at the scenes she described.

In 1826 these Barolong had extended to near the Malopo. The place where they lived was called Choaing, north-north-east of Motlotlobo, its name was derived from Lechoai (Salt). The Barolong of Choaing were under a chief named Bogachu. The country between them and the Batlapin was inhabited by the Balala, and about twenty miles distant were a great number of Barolong and Batlaro, to which the latter had fled to escape the attacks made upon them and the Batlapin by Jacob Cloete, a Griqua, and his bandit followers.

It was not a proper town, but a temporary place of abode. At this time Gontse, the paramount chief, was still living and residing at a place called Kougke, where several thousand Barolong had re-assembled under himself and Molala and Mochuara, the Bapulana and Baratsili chiefs.

Moffat says that although he found the Batlapin not only ignorant and depraved, but exceedingly brutal, he still felt convinced that the Barolong he here saw far exceeded them in these respects ; but we must remember that when he visited them they had been (at least many of them) living the life of fugitives, and had been thoroughly demoralised by the state of uncertainty and dread in which their lives for several years had been spent.

It is, however, certain that before this period, when the Batlapin themselves were living the same kind of fugitive life, the Barolong far excelled them not only as smiths, in the superiority of their metal work, and as carvers and workers in wood, being noted for the elaborate workmanship of their spoons, bowls, drinking cups, and large vessels, which abounded among them, but in the extent of their agricultural pursuits ; while in their mercantile proclivities they were unsurpassed, and might aptly have been termed the native traders of the Interior. "

Like the Batlapin and all other kindred tribes, they paid a dowry in cattle for their wives, a custom which seems to have originated in the idea of making a provision for the widow and children in case of the husband's death, but which has generally been described by Europeans as a purchase. Campbell states that they had a curious custom of calculating by nights instead of days, thus in speaking of a distance they would say that it was so many nights to such a place, instead of calculating so many days' journey.

Driven about as the Barolong clans had been, they were not allowed to rest long in their new habitations before they were once more attacked by one of those marauding parties from the south with which the whole country was filled, composed principally of Koranas, Griquas, and similar desperadoes, from whom the greater portion fled to the Kalahari for shelter, where on account of the scarcity of water they lost many of their cattle. After the storm had passed, the refugees once more returned to the neighbourhood of Mosega, where they remained until about 1830, when the western advance of the terrible Matabili drove the last vestige of their clans from that place, where Moselekatze built one of his great military kraals.

The wreck of the fugitives wandered to the southward, and after many privations and vicissitudes for a considerable time they joined their countrymen who had located themselves at Thaba Nchu in 1834 ; but on their arrival there the Baseleka branch ceased to acknowledge them as possessing the paramount sovereignty, and repudiated allegiance to them. After the destruction of the Matabili power and the flight of Moselekatze with his myrmidons towards the Zambesi, the fallen chiefs of this branch once more gathered their faithful retainers together, and leaving Thaba Nchu, they retraced their steps towards the interior, and settled in the country where they are now known as the Northern Barolong.

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The Batlou (the Men of the Elephant).
These people formed the principal offshoot of this branch of the Barolong family, and by a reference to the pedigree of their chiefs we shall find that they stood next in priority to the chiefs paramount of the main branch. The Baratlou, as we have already seen, had many contentions among themselves, each struggling for supremacy. On one of these occasions they divided themselves under three separate leaders ; one of these fled to the Batlapin, another kept distinct and independent under the guidance of Makraka, the founder of the petty clan of the Barolong-Bataung, and a third remained in what they termed the Batlou country, from among whom the offshoot of the Batlou was formed.

Those who joined the Batlapin prevailed on Molehabangwe, the father of Mothibi, to make an attack upon the other portions of the tribe. To this he consented, when in the engagements which followed many of the Barolong were slain in the mutual slaughter. Molehabangwe, however, evincing more consideration than they did themselves, gave strict orders to his people that if any of the captains of the Batlou fell into their hands, their lives were to be spared ; and thus the life of Tchopi was saved, although he defended himself until two arrows pierced his body. Several other similar battles were fought between the rival clans and their allies.

The Batlou went afterwards on an expedition against Silutane, chief of a tribe living on the banks of the Likwa or Upper Vaal, in which the chief Silutane and many of the cattle belonging to his tribe were captured. In another expedition they accompanied some of the Bakuena (men of the Crocodile) against the Bapiri (men of the Hyena), in which they slew many of the latter, and drove away their cattle.

The Muramusana, a clan of the Bakuena, subsequently made an incursion into the Batlou country, and in their turn seized and carried away some of their cattle. A short time afterwards a large party of the Batlou, being out upon a great hunt, came suddenly upon another hunting expedition of the same Muramusana, when the Batlou immediately attacked them, captured their pack oxen, and slew many of their people.

They afterwards united in a foray upon the Bakobi to obtain cattle ; but when they attacked the cattle posts they met with such a warm reception that they failed in the object of their expedition. They then attacked the great-place of the tribe, but were again beaten off with loss. In a second attack which they made upon the same place, they were joined by Setebe, a neighbouring chief, but in this attempt the inhabitants of the town sallied out and set upon the Batlou with such resolution that they met with a more severe repulse than before, one of the chiefs who accompanied them, Matlaku, the uncle and former guardian of the paramount chief Gontse, being among the slain. Thus fell Matlaku, the abductor of Sareni, the fatal originator of " the Woman's War."

After the Barolong territory had been ruthlessly devastated by its fierce Mantatee invaders, the Batlou gave up what appeared to them a hopeless struggle, and they retreated in a compact body towards the north. Here, as the terrible Matabili spread themselves farther and farther into the doomed country of the Bakuena, they gradually grew in strength from the number of fugitives who from time to time joined their ranks, until they became a powerful tribe.

To avoid the onslaught of a pitiless foe, they again fell back in 1836 in a north-easterly direction, until they occupied the country to the north of the Bapiri, along the banks of the present Nylstroom to the great mountain pass afterwards called by the name of their chief Makapan's Poort.

Their leader fixed upon this locality as his headquarters or great-place, at a spot called Mamakoa, in the neighbourhood of which are two great caverns, which afterwards became famous in the annals of their tribe for the terrible siege they endured when beleaguered in them by the Boers. Their kraals or towns were situated along the foot of the high mountains, the present Waterberg, which were less wooded than those in the Bapiri territory, or Mogaritse.

At this time Mokopa, Mokopane, or Makapan as he was variously called, had succeeded to the chieftainship of the tribe. He became so renowned as a warrior, but at the same time so noted for his merciless character and the vindictiveness with which he carried on his daring exploits, that he obtained the surname of Sechuamara, or " the Bloody." His great stronghold, as we have already noticed, was situated in Makapan's Poort. About 1836 he attacked some of the more northern stations of the Bapiri, when he besieged and carried by storm Nguanalelle, the town of Seamogo, the younger brother of the Bapiri chief Sekuati, killed every inhabitant of the place, and carried off the whole of their herds of cattle.

On the northern frontier of the country claimed by Makapan was a small village of Bakuena called Matlatla, under a chief named Sebula, who migrated from the south during the confusion of the great native wars. Near this place a large salt vlei, or pan, Lechoaing (the place of salt), was situated, which had given its name to the native village. In April or May 1836 this locality was visited by an emigrant Boer, with his family and servants. He loaded his waggon with salt, and then wished to return ; but his oxen, which had been bitten by the tsetse, became too feeble to drag the load, and left it there, perishing one after the other. This appears to be the first instance on record of the oxen of a European being destroyed by this terrible fly.

Finding himself unable to move, the farmer, after losing his means of transport, furnished himself with another span by the aid of the muskets he had with him, from a kraal of the Barapulana, another branch of the Barolong, who had followed on the trail of the Batlou. Some of the inhabitants of the kraal were killed.

They had never before come in contact with firearms ; and the people, seeing their comrades falling in the dust and killed at such a distance, fled panic-stricken, leaving their oxen and some cows in the power of the formidable white man, who drove them all away, and arrived safely with his capture amongst the Bapiri. From this tribe the wanderer went towards Delagoa Bay, where it was said that he, his family, and slaves all perished from the unhealthiness of the climate.

This is one of the remarkable instances of the astonishing recklessness and daring which some of the old colonial voortrekkers displayed in their determination to find new homes for themselves in the unknown Interior.

He trekked on, he knew not whither ! the first of his race to pass through those mysterious wilds, whose river banks, wooded and reed covered, were the haunts of the python and the crocodile, travelling with his family through a perfect terra incognita swarming with ferocious beasts of prey, and passing scattered habitations of savage men, yet moving onward, although single-handed, like a conqueror, arrogantly levying blackmail from the trembling inhabitants, and retaining his prey after he had once seized it, in spite of all their efforts to prevent him. Such acts, however much they may be censured, shewed a determination of purpose, which may have been equalled, but never surpassed.

That portion of the history of the Batlou which relates to the desperate siege which they stood in the great caverns of Makapan's Poort, the almost utter annihilation of their tribe by the Boers of the Transvaal, and the causes which led to it, we shall defer until we come to consider the migrations of the Emigrant Boers themselves, and their effect upon the native races with which they came in contact.

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The Clan of the Barolong styling themselves Bataung (the Men of the Lion).

Makraka, a chief of the Barolong, was the founder of the petty clan Bataung, a title which was in all probability selected in honour of his great ancestor Tao, the Lion. It appears that a quarrel arose between him and two of his relatives as to whom the supreme authority should belong, and as they could not agree upon the point they separated and declared themselves independent of each other.

In 1810 Matlou and Lesuma were still lying in one town, which was at that time larger than Lithako, containing from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants ; but Makraka entered the Batlapin territory, and became for a time a kind of tributary to Molehabangwe, with whom he lived upon good terms until a breach sprang up between them caused by the criminal intercourse which Molehabangwe carried on with the wife of Makraka's son ; and the one thinking the witchcraft of the other to be stronger than his own in consequence of more people dying in his district than in that of the other, a separation took place, and a feud sprang up between the two chiefs.

Makraka then removed with his people to a place called Setabe, on a river seven days' journey from Lithako. Here he was living in 1818. It was shortly after this that the irate chief of the Bataung attacked and cut off an entire party of the Batlapin who had gone on a hunting and bartering expedition to the Bakalahari, with the intention of procuring wild-cat skins. This outrage aroused such an intense hatred and feeling of revenge in the breasts of the Batlapin against these Bataung that it led to a series of desperate struggles between them.

As soon as the occurrence became known to Molehabangwe, Makraka found himself suddenly attacked, and many of the cattle belonging to his tribe captured. This so encouraged the Batlapin that they made a second and more formidable attack upon him, when notwithstanding the determined resistance of the Bataung, they were again defeated with severe loss. Their great-place was taken by the victorious Batlapin, and burnt down, and many of its inhabitants were slain.

After this severe defeat and the destruction of their great town, the remnant of them fled to the Bakuena beyond the Bangwaketse. At this time however a portion of Makraka's clan revolted, and joined Molehabangwe, while the remainder to the number of about two thousand accompanied the chief in his flight.

The Batlapin, learning the place of their retreat, and burning for still further revenge, sent a third expedition against them. Makaba, the chief of the Bangwaketse, tried to dissuade the pursuing force from carrying out their undertaking, but failed in the attempt. They proceeded on their march, and Makraka found himself once more face to face with his old foes. But the tide of fortune now turned, and he was able, with the assistance of the tribe among whom his people had taken refuge, to inflict such a severe rebuff upon his inveterate enemies that they were obliged to make a hasty retreat.

Makaba also, indignant that they had spurned the advice he gave, placed a strong force of his warriors in ambush to intercept the retreating Batlapin. Into this snare they fell ; and thus taken by surprise, and disorganised as they were, so many of them were slain that their expedition ended in a grievous disaster.

About the same time Makraka formed an alliance with his formidable neighbour Makaba. This was not however of long continuance when a difference arose between them, and Makaba threatened to attack Makraka after seedtime. The dread of this warrior was so great that many of the Barolong fled from their chief, and took refuge among their former foes at Lithako. Little more is known of the history of this clan, except that about the end of 1812 a chief belonging to Makraka came on a visit to Molehabangwe.

During his sojourn there, he persuaded Molehabangwe to cut down a tree which stood in the square, and, they say, buried a stone near the tree. On returning home he sent a present of Kaffir corn to Molehabangwe, who died soon after the receipt of it ; on which the people interpreted the cutting down of the tree as signifying their chief's death and the burying of the stone as his burial, and asserted that poison was in the corn. This matter renewed the old misunderstanding between the tribes, and the feud appears ever after to have been kept up, although they did not consider themselves in a state of actual war.

Salakutu sometimes went out with a party professedly to hunt, was absent for a long time, and returned with many cattle he had stolen. When Mothibi saw this he would appear to be enraged, but a present of part of the plunder soon pacified him, and should the party injured complain, he took it upon himself to satisfy them. Their wars, says Campbell, generally proceeded from two causes, disputes about their wives, or abusing each other's people ; the party injured then invaded his neighbour's territory, carrying destruction wherever he went.

After this the clan of Makraka disappeared entirely from the scene, which led Dr. Livingstone into the error of imagining that the great tribe of the Bataung, whose career we shall examine in the sequel, had become extinct. Of this clan of the Barolong nothing more is heard, it was therefore most probably annihilated, like so many others of the minor clans during the terrible native wars which desolated the entire country a few years afterwards.

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The Barolong of the Baseleka branch.

No traditions appear to have been preserved either regarding Seleka, the Blindworm or Grass-snake, the founder of the Baseleka, or of Koi-koi, his successor. They appear however to have resided, after their separation from the main branch, at a place called variously by different native authorities Tabeu, Thaba, Yataba, and Thaba Matjeeu. The last was probably the original name given to it, meaning the Mountain of Rocks or of Precipices. It was at this spot that Moroke, the Rainmaker, the father of Sihunelo, had his great-place ; it is stated to have been a considerable distance north of the Vaal. According to the evidence of Silolecoe, there was living near them a nation called Baga Motlatla, or the Batlatla, the men of the Corn-baskets, a clan of the great group of the Northern Bakuena.

The Barolong and Batlatla did not live in peace, and at length Moroke determined to end the feud if possible by taking his enemies by surprise and destroying them at a single blow. For this purpose, said Silolecoe, one day Moroke took a large number of his men to murder the Batlatla while they were still in bed. One of the Batlatla men, however, was out on a journey, and he saw the Barolong army coming towards his country. When he saw the Barolong approaching, he at once turned back to tell his chief that he saw a war coming.

Upon hearing this, the Batlatla chief did not go out to meet the foe, but he commanded his men to take their arms, their assagais, their clubs, their battle-axes, and their shields, and to watch the whole night. He sent all the women and children away from the town, to hide themselves and sleep within the forests close by. In the evening the Barolong approached the great town of the Batlatla, without knowing that already the chief had heard of their coming.

Very early in the morning Moroke, the chief of the Barolong, commanded his men to fall upon the town like a great storm, while, as he thought, the Batlatla were still asleep, and thus an attack was made. But it was in vain ; for although Gaboronoe, the Batlatla chief, would not let his men go to meet the men of Moroke outside the town, they were waiting like lions within it. And then, as the Barolong came on to surprise the sleepers, the Batlatla came out like a swarm of bees upon them, and killed large numbers of them. Their chief Moroke lost his life, and many of his great men and his captains.

He left two sons of his great house, Mokgosi and Sihunelo, and so Mokgosi, the War cry or Alarm, was made chief in his father's stead. Some years after Moroke's death the two chiefs called their men together for a great jackal-hunt, and they did not know that a great hunt of the Batlatla was also intended, and thus the two parties met at a place called Kokane.

When they saw the Batlatla, the two sons of Moroke remembered their father's death, and resolved to avenge it, so a dreadful battle took place at Kokane, and Gaboronoe, the Batlatla chief, was killed with many of his men ; and the Batlatla, after seeing their chief lying dead on the field, killed Mokgosi, the elder son of Moroke, also ; but in the end Sihunelo, the younger son of Moroke, and the father of the present Moroka, being a brave young man, fought until he had defeated the Batlatla, and then he returned to Thabeng, that is Thaba Matjeeu, which was near a fountain called Dibane.

Sihunelo became a powerful chief. His great wife, after she had borne him a son, Moroka, was made over to his brother Sabbedere or Tshabahre, in order, it was said, that the heir might have no rivals, and thus she remained the brother's wife. Among the many commandos in which Sihunelo was engaged against the surrounding tribes was one which he planned against the Bakuena. The Bakuena chief was Siluchoage, the head of the Batlatla branch of that people, and there was a large mountain called Shalili, named after a Morolong, between the Barolong and the Bakuena ; and Shalili was three days' journey on the north side of the Vaal, south of the river Tigane or Tigare.

Sihunelo invited the Batlapin to assist him in the attack, and they came to his aid in great numbers. His army is said to have been composed of eight thousand men, and on this occasion he was assisted by Coenrad Buys, a fugitive Boer, and a runaway slave, besides three others who possessed firearms ; and it was upon the assistance which he thought these weapons would afford him that he greatly relied, and considered from that fact that his army would be invincible.

As he advanced, a small party of Bakuena that was out on a petty foray was surrounded, and about fifteen men were killed. The great-place or chief town of the Bakuena was built upon a hill of difficult access, thus forming a place of considerable strength. It had deep precipices facing the Barolong quarter, but was level on the other side. The Barolong forces attacked it at two different points, in large bodies. When one party of warriors attempted to ascend the cliffs, they were repulsed by the Bakuena rolling down great stones upon them from the summit, so that they were glad to retire without being able to capture any cattle, which was the great object of the expedition.

The second party, however, advancing by a different route gained a footing upon the summit ; but when the Bakuena found that they had done so, they charged them with such resolute vigour that the enemy were quickly thrown into confusion, and put to the rout. The Barolong, knowing the gap or poort, escaped through it ; but the Batlapin, not knowing the country, were entrapped, and were driven head-long over the precipices, where they all perished. Thus the five muskets were found to be ineffectual in making an impression upon so strong a position, and one that was so resolutely defended.

Shortly after this attack, these Bakuena left the mountain, and migrated across the river Khing. Here they built their great town near a large mountain called Muchoane. Whilst here, a chief of the Batlokua, or the men of Ma-Intatisi, sent messengers to them, telling them they were to build walls round their kraals. This mission was to throw them off their guard, and the Bakuena, believing them, fell into the trap.

They commenced building large circular walls while the messengers, having gained their entire confidence, still remained with them. The work, after great labour, was completed, and the Bakuena believed that now they could rest in security, when one of the Batlokua messengers secretly informed his chief that the Bakuena were now blind, and slept.

Then a commando was prepared, and with rapid marches came upon the Bakuena town in the dusk of the evening ; they concealed themselves behind the walls the Bakuena had themselves built, and a little after midnight they arose and fell upon the sleeping Bakuena, when many were killed, but others escaped in the confusion and darkness of the night. The fugitives dispersed in different directions, and some retreated towards the Barolong and took refuge under them.

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It was shortly after this that the Batlokua, or the Mantatees as they were more generally called at that period, began to push their marauding expeditions into the country of the Northern Bakuena. Silolecoe stated that after this the Makali (Mantatees) collected great commandos to clear the country of the Bakuena, the Barolong, and all the other tribes. We have already described the rumours which spread as the Mantatee hordes went on accumulating in strength, and extending their devastations as they spread themselves farther and farther into the country ; and the attacks made by the invaders upon other portions of the Barolong tribe.

Mr. Broadbent, who commenced a mission among the Barolong in the year 1822, gives a considerable amount of reliable information with regard to the Mantatees both before and after their advance upon Koeromanie. At the time of their first irruption into the Barolong territory he was travelling across the country, in search of Sihunelo, unconscious of the danger he was running. On one occasion he came in actual contact with a party of them, but fortunately as they had never seen white men or waggons before, they fled from him with precipitation, imagining that they saw walking houses filled with white demons and sorcerers !

Miserable, solitary stragglers were sometimes met with ; one, a tall old man, who appeared more like a moving skeleton than a living being. On a raw piece of meat being given to him, he greedily devoured it like a dog, although there was a fire where he might have cooked it. At another time a fine young man, with a deep wound in the neck, was found lying on the ground quite naked. The care he had taken of his weapons excited the traveller's surprise, and would have been worthy of a warrior even in classic times. He had placed his assagais and battle-axe on the dry ground, then his shield upon them, and his kaross so as to cover the whole, and protected this with his naked body which was wet with falling rain. His weapons were his means both of defence and to obtain subsistence.

Other signs were not wanting that the missionary was advancing into a country occupied by the enemy. A short time previously he had passed a Korana kraal, under an old captain called 'Chu-de'-ep, who made his appearance enveloped in a jackal-skin kaross from his neck to his feet, carrying a tail of the same animal to brush off the perspiration and flies from his august countenance. Proceeding onward, Mr. Broadbent arrived at another station, under 'Kudeboe'kei, a captain of the same race.

Scarcely, however, had he arrived when an alarm was given that the Barolong were approaching, flying from the Mantatees. In an instant all was hurry and a Babel of confusion. The huts disappeared as if by magic, the mats of which they were composed were rolled up, and the sticks which supported them were tied in bundles. These, together with the scanty supply of culinary utensils that they used, were soon secured on pack oxen, and in an astonishingly short time they were hurrying away on their march towards the distant horizon.

As they disappeared in one direction, clouds of dust arose in another, while the lowing of hundreds of cattle and the bleating of flocks of sheep and goats soon became audible. On these came, driven by a mixed multitude of men, women, and children, accompanied by a host of armed warriors, amid great noise and confusion, each party attending its special charge, while the entire multitude were under the command of Sabbedere, the brother of Sihunelo, the great chief of the Baseleka.

Sabbedere was a tall muscular man, armed with shield, battle-axe, and quiver of assagais, attended by a bodyguard similarly accoutred. A vast horde of the Mantatees had attacked them, and after a severe battle, in which they stormed the Barolong town, many Barolong were slain, and the remainder had to fly. In doing so they had purposely separated their forces into two bands. Sihunelo and his son Moroko had fallen back with those with them by one route, and Sabbedere by another ; and when Mr. Broadbent met them they were attempting to form a junction. The Korana villages were abandoned by their terrified inhabitants wherever the Barolong approached, as it was supposed that the Mantatees were in close pursuit.

The great-place of the chief, which had been so recently stormed and sacked by the invaders, was passed by Mr. Broadbent in his search for Sihunelo. It was beautifully situated near a river. There was abundant evidence of the haste with which the inhabitants had fled, as in some parts the houses were partly broken and partly burnt, here and there were strewn wooden utensils, and sometimes skeletons of persons who had been slain in the assault and of children who had been left by their friends and had been killed by the enemy or died of starvation were seen.

A living child, frightfully emaciated, with a large wound in her left side, was found crouching near a door of a hut. The wound had been made by ravens attacking her. She was a girl of about seven years of age. A bare skeleton lay near her, the bones of her sister, who had died of starvation. She had survived for eighteen days, when she was found contending with three hungry dogs and some crows picking bones ! This was the town where Sabbedere and his people were attacked.N

Notes: This country was a portion of that which the early emigrant Koranas had forcibly seized from the Bushmen, and whence they had carried on their depredations against the Bachoana tribes.

The hosts of the Mantatees were then to the north of them. They were estimated at from forty to fifty thousand souls. It was from this point that they turned upon Lithako, where, as we have already seen, they were repulsed. According to Mr. Broadbent as well as the other authorities previously quoted, the Mantatees had not seen horses before, and they thought the horse and rider were one animal ; neither had they been previously opposed by firearms. They evinced, says this writer, desperate boldness in the unequal contest, and made one or two attempts to surround these strange animals which " spit fire " at them ; and it was not until about five hundred were shot that they commenced their retreat from their assailants, whom they could not reach with their weapons, for the Griquas galloped away to reload their guns, and then returned to fire.

The retreating enemy from Koeromanie fell back through a line of country upon the trail of these Barolong, as Sihunelo in his flight first made a temporary halt near the river Koralla, thence he moved to the Nalassi mountains for a short time, when he selected a beautiful spot called Maquassie. This was the very place upon which the Mantatee hordes were then advancing. Scarcely had Sihunelo settled in his new habitation in 1823, when a fresh alarm was raised that the Mantatees were coming.

This was before daylight, and all was at once confusion and noise ; instant measures were taken for abandoning the town. In the twilight, amid the shouting of people, the lowing of cattle, and barking of dogs, parties of armed men commenced driving off herds of cattle, followed by women and children laden with such things as they could carry. The chief Sihunelo with some of his men remained to the last, and wished to persuade the missionary Broadbent to accompany them, as he could not remain to defend them and, he said, " it would be madness to hazard a battle, they are too strong for us."

This, at length, proved to be no false alarm ; the dreadful Mantatees were really in the vicinity of the newly raised town of the Barolong, but, strange to say, probably believing the place was abandoned, they passed at a short distance, and never came into it. This seemed the more surprising, as while the vast horde marched on in divisions formed of dense masses of people, the surrounding country was filled, as we have mentioned, with small parties of strolling Mantatees, who, while foraging for themselves, formed a cloud of scouts around them.

To these the Bushmen might be added, and the very lions seemed accumulating along the line of march. The great host was three days in passing the neighbourhood of Maquassie in different divisions ; they moved towards the east, and yet during those three days not one of the numerous stragglers appeared on the high ground near the station. This fact aroused the superstition of the Barolong, who reported long afterwards that because the missionaries would not flee from the whole army of the Mantatees, these dared not come to the station while the missionary was there.

The Barolong on this occasion avoided collision with the main body, but cut off the poor stragglers by scores. The greater number of these unfortunate wretches appeared in a most miserable plight for want of food. They were reduced to eat their dogs, cowdung, and, in fact, what could no longer be a matter of doubt, they were found devouring their own dead !

The horrid extremities to which some of these retreating fugitives were reduced is related by Mr. Hodgson, when he describes how horror-struck he was upon discovering two women and a man concealed in a bush in the act of cooking a human leg ; near them was found the skeleton of a full-grown man and part of the body of another, of which a leg and an arm had been cut off, the head opened, the bowels drawn out, and the internal parts of the body exposed to view. One of the women was roasting part of the leg upon the coals, and the other was engaged with the man in eating with savage greediness the portion which had just been cooked, the man breaking the bones with a stone, and sucking them with apparent delight.

At this time, Mr. Hodgson writes, the invading tribes were truly formidable both as to their number and courage ; with the exception of the Griquas' guns there was nothing which could effectually oppose their progress, in whichever way they turned they carried all before them ; but what human adversaries could not effect, gaunt famine accomplished. The subsequent dissensions of their leaders enforced the final dismemberment of the vast host, which at one time had threatened the safety of a large portion of South Africa.

It was at this juncture that one formidable section of them, which was said to have been composed of five confederate tribes, doubled again and re-entered the territory occupied by the Barolong clans, with the apparent determination of rooting out the last vestige of these easily conquered people. It was in dread of this renewed attack that Mothibi, the Batlapin chief, and his people fled to the southward ; and the missionaries Moffat and Hamilton retired to Griquatown with their families for greater security from the advancing enemy.

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These invaders were led by the Bataung chiefs belonging to the Leghoya group, whose history it will be necessary to investigate more fully as we proceed. Early in 1824 some eight or ten men of this tribe paid Maquassie a visit, but instead of fraternising with the inhabitants, remained at a short distance from the town, where, although several of the Barolong had some intercourse with them, the greater portion of the latter treated them with suspicion ; and it was not long before the real cause of this ominous visit became fully demonstrated.

In May 1824 Sihunelo found himself suddenly attacked in his great-place at Maquassie. This onslaught was made by the combined forces of the invaders, who had surprised the inhabitants by forced marches, and attacked them just before daybreak. Sihunelo was completely taken by surprise, and was unprepared to resist them effectually, although he and his people fought bravely and secured most of their cattle. They were beaten out of the place and obliged to flee, while the enemy retained possession of the town, which they sacked and burnt, the mission station being served in the same manner. Not satisfied with this, the victorious enemy under their great leaders Makari and Mophete pursued the flying Barolong down the Vaal, until some ten or twelve miles west of Moos.

In this extremity Sihunelo dispatched messengers to Griqua-town, imploring assistance, while the Barolong and the Koranas were scattering in all directions before their vindictive pursuers. Waterboer, after being reinforced by the chief of Campbell and others, at length started for their relief, when the Griquas were joined by the Koranas, who hoped that a united attack would be made upon the enemy.

The Griquas however wasted their time in hunting ; and then, not troubling themselves to ascertain the actual facts, began without any ground of suspicion to maliciously accuse Sihunelo and his people of having destroyed the mission property and in order to hide their treachery charging the mischief upon reported invaders. The Griqua Waterboer and the other captains, getting Sihunelo into their power, obliged him to pay a fine of six hundred head of cattle. Mr. Broadbent was, however, afterwards able to shew clearly the innocence of Sihunelo in the matter laid to his charge by the Griquas, who were compelled by the colonial government to restore their ill-gotten booty.

The population of Griqualand and of the surrounding region was at this time in a state of excitement, unrest, and apprehension, not so much from the proximity of the marauding Mantatees, Bataung, and other tribes, as from the so-called Bergenaars, whom the Griquas dreaded much more, as they had firearms equally with themselves. It was evident therefore that Waterboer reserved his strength and ammunition, collected professedly to resist the spoilers of Sihunelo, in order to make an assault upon the Griquas who disclaimed his authority, and had taken refuge in the Berg.

With regard to this portion of the Barolong history, Silolecoe stated that at this time some Griquas made a foray upon the Barolong and carried off a lot of cattle, when to avoid a repetition of such conduct Sihunelo retreated to the Barapulana, who were staying at Pitsane. This clearly proves what the Barolong themselves thought of the affair of Waterboer.

We have already recounted the incidents which followed this retreat of Sihunelo in rapid succession, under the head of Barend Barends and that of the Barolong of Pitsane. Suffice it here to say, that when in the neighbourhood of this last town he sent out his men to Setlagole for the ostensible purpose of having a lion-hunt, but in reality to reconnoitre the country and to discover if possible the whereabouts of the enemy who had given chase to him under Mophete and Makari, as soon as they discovered his flight. Whilst employed upon this expedition, they unexpectedly came upon the Bataung, the same body from whom Mr. Moffat had so narrowly escaped on his return from the Bangwaketse, when his waggons were attacked and he was saved by a small Griqua escort under Barend Barends, who had fortunately joined him but a short time before.

Meeting their old foes face to face, a savage and furious battle ensued, although many of the Barolong fled at its very onset. A considerable number however rallied round their chiefs. The slaughter which followed was great, especially among the leading men. Several of Sihunelo's near relatives were slain, among whom was Sabbedere, his favourite brother, besides a number of minor chiefs or captains. Several leaders among the enemy were also struck down, but the great loss on the Barolong side was doubtless that of their great fighting captain.

Sabbedere died like a warrior. He grappled with the most determined foes of his tribe until overwhelmed by numbers, but even then he did not submit until after laying six of them dead at his feet, when he fell pierced with many assagais, and was immediately, in revenge, literally chopped to pieces. The victors affirm that Molitsane, the rising Motaung, gave the falling warrior his coup de grace, whom, it is said, he mistook for Sihunelo himself.

This loss was fatal to the Barolong, and their chief, in the bitterness of his grief exclaimed that of all his friends, he alone was left ! For some time he and the remnant of his tribe lived the life of fugitives, and the victorious Bataung carried devastation and death in every direction, the country in the interior being full of their marauding bands.

Some time after this, in August 1826, Sihunelo made a second attempt to establish his great-place at Maquassie, in company with Messrs. Hodgson and Archbell. In September he joined a party of Bergenaars with a number of his people, who had gone up the Vaal with the intention of attacking the chief who had first driven him from Maquassie, captured his cattle, and killed his brother.

The opportunity for reprisals seemed too good to be neglected. Sihunelo, however, was evidently more bent on revenging the death of Sabbedere, who was, as we have stated, his favourite brother, than even of recapturing his cattle ; but in neither aim was he successful, for in this attempt he was again defeated, and had a narrow escape with his life. Had it not been for the exertions of the Bergenaars, he and all his people must have been surrounded by the enemy.

After this last reverse, not being in a situation to meet his enemies again in battle, he determined once more to abandon Maquassie, and early in the morning of the 29th of September 1826 all were in motion. The people moved off under their respective chiefs, quitting for ever their newly-raised habitations. After this they wandered about for months, without any fixed place of rest, occasionally disturbed by reports of the enemy being about to attack them, and occasionally falling in with parties of the Bataung, or the men of the Lion.

At length they settled at the 'Ker-by-'kaam, or the Motlanapietse, or Umtlalanpietse, as it was respectively called by the Barolong and Batlapin, the Groote Platberg of the Bastaards. Here Sihunelo died, when Moroka, the present chief, succeeded to the chieftainship. Here the new chief remained with his people until the year 1834, when they were driven from the Vaal by prolonged droughts and fear of Moselekatze. They then migrated in a south-easterly direction, until they arrived at the hills about Thaba Nchu, the Mountain of Gloom.

The advocates of Basutu sovereignty state that Moshesh allowed them to do so. If that be so, then we find that at this early period the refugee " Chief of the Mountain " had already commenced laying claim to the finest portions of the country between the Orange and the Vaal ! From this point the history of this branch of the Barolong becomes so intermingled with that of other races of whom we have to treat, that it is better for us to defer any further consideration of it until then. We will therefore now proceed to the last clan of this group which it will be necessary for us to notice.

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The Barapulana.

This branch of the Barolong group after a time dropped or elided the prefix Ra of their founder's name, as might be pointed out in other instances, and thus contracted the appellation of their clan to Bapulana, the men of the Showers. Little is known of them except what has been already given in connection with the other branches, up to the storming and sack of Pitsane by the confederates under Makari.

It appears highly probable that as the name of this formidable invading chief disappears immediately after the furious encounter in which Sabbedere was slain, and that of Molitsane at once rises to the surface as chief of the Bataung, that he also was killed there among the Bataung captains who fell on that fatal day, which on account of the number of great men who were slaughtered on that occasion, was ever after spoken of as " the Battle of the Chiefs." However this may be, it is certain that at the close of the conflict Molitsane had assumed the command of the Bataung.

Upon the scattering of the Barolong clans, and Sihunelo's flight once more to the south, a portion of the Bapulana escaped to the north, where they joined their countrymen the Batlou ; but the greater portion of them rallied round their chief Matlabe (flattened clay),N or as he was sometimes called, Molala (the poor one), on account of the misfortunes which so frequently attended him.

Notes: 1 That is a piece of softened clay which, when thrown against a wall, or upon the ground, flattens out.

This chief, to save himself and his people from utter destruction, entered into a kind of alliance with the enemy who had so persistently endeavoured to destroy his tribe. In this we have an exemplification of the manner in which these great invading hordes were recruited, and how their numbers so rapidly increased, by absorbing into their ranks the weaker tribes which found it impossible to oppose them.

Another potent reason doubtless accelerated this process at the present juncture, and that was the growing fame of the Matabili, who were already spreading terror through the Northern Bakuena. Thus we find that Matlabe entered into a compact with Molitsane, and that these two chiefs, aided by Ra-'kabi, chief of the Bakotu or Red men (i.e. Koranas), Jan Bloem the Younger, and some of the Masateu (the mixed multitude), or Griquas, determined to make an attack upon the new, but formidable enemy.

In their first attack, they succeeded in surprising some of the Matabili at daylight, when the Matabili were repulsed at their own kraals, and a large number of cattle were captured, with which they attempted to retreat as rapidly as possible. The Matabili, after recovering from their first surprise, pursued them, surrounded them in the night, and stormed their encampment, slaying a large number of them, when the remainder of the party fled in a panic and took refuge for a time south of the Vaal.

The Matabili, however, not satisfied to think that any had escaped, after securing the cattle pursued them again, pushing on after them towards the valley of the Orange river ; but the confederates, in order to avoid them, separated. The Barolong doubled and fled in an opposite direction, while the Matabili in pursuit came suddenly upon a strong party, among whom were a number of emigrant Dutch farmers, when the pursuers were themselves driven back with considerable slaughter.

After a time a quarrel arose between Matlabe and his ally Molitsane, when the latter advanced suddenly towards the Vaal, and attacked Matlabe's great-place, capturing it and most of Matlabe's cattle, killing many of his people, and driving the remainder, together with Matlabe himself, across the Vaal. The defeated Barolong chief applied to his old enemy Moselekatze for assistance. This was at once given to him. They attacked the late victorious Bataung under Molitsane, who was staying near the Vaal, killed many of his warriors, and captured the few guns he had and a great many cattle.

Almost immediately after this victory, Matlabe became apprehensive, from the haughty demeanour of the Matabili, that they would become perfect masters of the situation, when he once more veered suddenly round to his late antagonist and old ally, and entered into a fresh compact with him to drive out their common enemy.

According to this agreement, the Matabili were attacked by surprise, but again the confederates sustained a severe defeat, from the superior prowess of the Abaka-Zulu. A terrible slaughter followed, the great towns of the Bataung were in their turn surprised and carried by storm one after the other in rapid succession, and the inhabitants without distinction were mercilessly butchered. The remnant of the clans fled across the country, taking refuge in the first instance among the fastnesses of the Makwatling or Koranaberg, and then continued their flight towards Thaba Nchu.

Shortly after this, Molitsane, his tribe having been scattered by his reverses or dying of famine, found himself so weakened in power that he was obliged to wander about in a state of destitution. Upon this Matlabe determined to seize his old rival and put him to death. This, however, Moroka, the chief of the Baseleka, would not allow. A quarrel then arose between the two kinsmen, Moroka and Matlabe, when the latter, being an imperious man, parted in anger, and taking the remnant of his clan with him, once more retraced his steps, and crossed the Vaal, where he and his branch of the Barolong have since remained.

Thus have we completed our sketch of the Barolong history. Of the Bakubuon, the Batsasin, and the Bakuru, nothing is now known except that they once existed. A few years ago a few of the Batsasin still survived at Taung. With regard to the Bushmen, the Barolong tribe appears to have had little to do with their extermination ; the pioneer Bachoana appear to have performed that portion of the work, so that it will not be necessary for us to dilate upon this point, but to pass at once to the next subject for our consideration.



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THE BAKUENA OR BAKONE TRIBES


The group which we have now to consider was one of the most important of those which migrated from the north. Its multitudinous ramifications were at one time more widely spread than those of any other. They were found scattered over a larger area, extending from the Maluti in the south to Lake Ngami in the north, and from the flanks of the Drakensberg towards the seaboard on the east to the confines of the Kalahari on the west, while the present Transvaal territory formed the principal focus around which they concentrated.

Taking them in their entirety, they had made further advances towards civilisation than any other branch of the Bantu race. The main tribes trace back, through an unbroken line of chiefs, to the great founder or common ancestor of the group, some twenty generations, representing therefore a probable length of time of six or seven hundred years.

It is evident that the siboko of the ancient stem was the Kuena, or Crocodile, even before the lifetime of the chief Kuena, the special founder of the Bakuena proper. He therefore probably derived his name from the ancient siboko of his race. The great antiquity of this tribal emblem is proved by the fact that originally all the great branches from the old stem retained the same siboko, although some were earlier offshoots than that of Kuena himself.

Thus the Bahurutsi branch is called Bahurutsi a Malope, the Bamangwato, Bamangwato a Malope, and the Bangwaketse, Bangwaketse a Malope, the people or men of a son of Malope, while the Bakuena are called Bakuena a Masilo, the people of Kuena the son of Masilo.

This plainly shows that, although a branch tribe may have selected a new object of veneration, in which they were frequently guided by the name of their founder, or it may be that the founder himself took the name of the new siboko in order to shew that he was the man of, or representative of, the emblem adopted by his clan, whichever way it may have been, the origin of this superstition was beyond that, though the commencement is lost in the dim obscurity of past ages.

The term Bakone or Bakoni, which has been applied to them, has been considered by some as a term of reproach, and of Kaffir origin, being an appellation bestowed upon them by the latter people, who looked with contempt upon the less warlike character of the interior tribes than that of themselves.

M. Arbousset states that he has heard that the denomination of Bakoni was applied without distinction by the Kaffirs to all the coloured people they had known, that of Basutu to the Bachoana in general, and the name Baroa to the Bushman race. Moffat appears more correctly to confine the title to the group of the Bakuena ; while we shall find as we proceed that the term Basutu was applied exclusively to those clans which represent the Southern Bakuena. The Bushmen on the other hand called the Bachoana and Basutu collectively by the name 'Ku, while they designated the Coast Kaffirs 'Tolo, and themselves 'Khuai and 'Khuai- 'Khuai.

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Fortunately the connection between the various branches of this group has been preserved,N which enables us to follow out our inquiry with considerable precision. We will therefore do so under the following heads, viz. : —

1. The Bahurutsi, the people of Mohurutsi,
2. The Batlaru, the men of the Python,
3. The Bamangwato, the people of Ngwato,
4. The Batauana, the men of the young Lions,
5. The Bangwaketse, the people of Ngwaketse,
6. The Bakuena, the men of the Crocodile.

Notes: The merit of this is largely due to the energy of the Rev. Roger Price, who upon being written to by the author for information, at once applied himself to the collection of this valuable addition to the tribal history of South Africa.

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Under the last we shall, on this occasion, merely speak of the northern tribes of these people, and reserve whatever remarks we have to make upon the remainder of the clans until we treat of the great migration of these tribes to the south of the Vaal.

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The Bahurutsi, or the People of Mohurutsi.

Malope, the great ancestor of this tribe, was the eldest son of Masilo I, but, according to native tradition, having wrenched a portion of the town or tribe from his father during the lifetime of the latter, his second son Kuena was looked upon as the true lineal representative of the house of Masilo I.

At the death of Malope, his people were again subdivided under his three sons Mohurutsi, Ngwato, and Ngwaketse, who laid the foundations of three powerful tribes of the great Bakuena nation ; although, in the first instance, Ngwato and Ngwaketse left their brother Mohurutsi with their portions of their father's town, and joined Kuena, where they remained with his tribe until a subsequent period, when their followers, having retained their individuality throughout, left it, and became independent tribes distinguished by the names of their respective chiefs as the Bamangwato and Bangwaketse.

It was evidently from this lengthened intimacy with the Bakuena that these two branches retained the old national siboko of the crocodile, the Bamangwato taking the antelope called the puti or phuti (the duiker) as an additional object of their veneration, while as we have already seen, the Bahurutsi having separated under different circumstances became the Bachwene, or the men of the Baboon, at an early period of their separation.

Notwithstanding this alteration, all the tribes derived from the ancient stock of the Kuena hold the crocodile in particular fear, even to the present day looking upon any contact with it as the sure prognostication of evil ; thus showing that they still retain some of the early habits of their race.

Although the national symbol ceased to be the special emblem of their tribe, it is quite certain that the Bahurutsi rulers were still acknowledged as the paramount chiefs of all the others, with the exception of the representative Bakuena. This ancient rank of the Bahurutsi is even now recognised amongst them.

This is unmistakably the case at any of their rites and ceremonies : thus it is the prerogative of the Bahurutsi to be the first to eat the first fruits of the new year, and it would be a serious breach of international etiquette for any of the kindred tribes to partake of the first fruits of the season before they had received intimation from the Bahurutsi that they have already gone through that ceremony.

Even should a travelling Mohurutsi be on a visit to any other tribe when any of their rites and ceremonial mysteries are being performed, he would take precedence of all the others, notwithstanding the presence of the ruling chiefs of any of the other branches, even were he merely one of the commonalty among his own people, a sure acknowledgment, according to native law and custom, of priority both of rank and of tribal existence.

Little has been preserved of their intervening tribal history from their separation to the last few years which preceded the Mantatee invasion, except that they had numerous wars with almost every tribe. They look, according to the authority of Marete, upon Masilo as the great warrior chief of their race, who spread his conquests far and wide in every direction. They have the same traditions as all the other tribes of having migrated from the north, and it would appear that these conquests of Masilo were achieved during this process of migration.

For a considerable period previous to 1812 their great town appears to have been Kurrechane, about two hundred miles north-east of Lithako. It was situated in the Mosega basin, which contained the sources of the Marikwa, and was bounded on the north and north-east by the Kurrechane range of mountains. The beauty and fertility of this tract of country formed a theme of admiration for several of the early travellers.

Kurrechane, like all the chief towns of these agricultural tribes, was of considerable dimensions. Dr. Casalis describes the country around the town as being very beautiful. To the north, he says, rose the mountains of Kurrechane and Lehorutse, to the east was the valley of the Magame, covered with fields of millet, and to the south, hills carpeted with verdure beautified the landscape by the variety of their forms.

Mr. Campbell, who visited them in 1812-13, states that Sibiware was then chief of the tribe, and that their manners and customs were similar to those of the Bangwaketse. Their great place was larger than Lithako, and their cattle kraal was so large that animals frequently grazed in it. The climate of their country was cold, on account of its elevated position, while the grass was peculiarly short and sweet.

The country abounded also in wood, particularly one sort, of which they made large wooden bowls which they called Magwana, and which grows tall and thick. It was from the Bahurutsi that the Batlapin obtained the copper for rings which they manufactured, and iron for making assagais. The ore was said to resemble the earth, which they dug out of a mountain, after which it was smelted, and made into various articles. The iron was also dug out in stones, and under- went the same operation. The Bahurutsi were two days' journey from the Bangwaketse, and five days from the Batlapin.

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Some of the principal houses were of considerable size. One, described by Mr. Campbell, was circular, like all the others, having not only the walls plastered within and without, but like-wise the inside of the roof. The wall was painted yellow, and ornamented with figures of shields, elephants, camelopards, etc.

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It was also adorned with a neat cornice on a border painted of a red colour. In some houses there were figures, pillars, etc., moulded in hard clay, and painted with different colours, that would not have disgraced European workmen. They shewed themselves an ingenious people. Various vessels were in their possession, painted of different colours and glazed for holding water, milk, food, and a kind of beer made of corn. They had also pots of clay of all sizes and very strong. Every part of their houses and yards was kept very clean. They were also acquainted with the method of smelting metals.

Alarms from sudden forays made upon them were as much a normal condition among these Bahurutsi as among the other tribes. Mr. Campbell has given us a description of the excitement which one of these alarms occasioned. The hue and cry was raised, and a scene of confusion quickly followed. A number of shrill whistles sounded in every direction, men bawling, and the enclosed cattle bellowing with all their might, while the warriors armed with their assagais, shields, and battle-axes, started in pursuit.

On their return they came marching in regular order, carrying their arms in stately array, their faces bedaubed with pipe clay, every face marked differently ; their legs were painted with the same clay up to the knees, resembling stockings. On halting, they went through all kinds of manoeuvres used in attacking an enemy, with their assagais, etc. Some- times they would leap to a great height, as if to escape an arrow or an assagai. Their movements in advancing or retreating were in a zigzag direction, as if to prevent the enemy from taking aim at them. When the exercise was over, they retired outside the gate, and sat down.

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On another occasion, some of these Bahurutsi warriors painted their bodies with a pipe clay of a French-grey colour.N Most of them were armed with four assagais, also battle-axes and shields made of the hide of an ox. They exhibited their war manoeuvres in a terrific manner ; now advancing, then retreating, and suddenly returning to the attack, sometimes imitating the stabbing of an enemy.

The height of their leaps into the air was surprising. At a great meeting, notwithstanding the great diversity of dresses, they all resembled each other in having their bodies painted with white pipe clay from head to foot, and in wearing a white turban made from the skin of the wild hog, the bristles of which were as white as the whitest horsehair. Many wore panther or leopard skins, and several were ornamented with eight or ten coverings resembling fur tippets hanging from their shoulders ; and others wore them depending from the middle of their bodies. One warrior alone was painted red from head to foot.

Notes: These tribes used different colours for their war paint, the Tamaha and Batlapin red, some of the Mantatees black, and the Bahurutsi different shades of white.

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These tribal colours would almost seem to intimate that such distinctive adornment was used to enable the warriors of any tribe to distinguish those of their own clan from those of their enemy, in the day of battle, as in the confusion of the combat, with men speaking the same language and using the same dress and weapons, an error, especially in one of their night attacks when they could not very readily by any other means distinguish friends from foes, might easily arise.

There seems very little doubt that before the desolating invasions of the formidable Mantatees, and still more terrible Matabili, the country around the Bahurutsi was very thickly populated. Mr. Campbell noted some of these tribes at the time of his visit.

He states that to the north of them the Bamangwato and Bakuena were living, to the north-east the Makalaka, to the eastward the Bahatja, the Bapalangi, and the Mashona, to the south-east the Barolong, the Basetja, Maribana, Babuklola, Bamuhopa, and Bapuhene, to the south-south-east the Bapoo (the men of the Bull), Bamatou, Baliciana, Bahoba, Bapiri, Baklokla (probably the Batlokua), Mulihi, Muhubilu, Mumanyana, Bahoupi, and Bamaliti. Many of these were doubtless minor offshoots or clans of the great tribes of this group, which were afterwards swept from the face of the earth by the invading hordes that, within the ten years which followed, devastated the entire country occupied by the Bakuena group ; after which many of these smaller tribes were never more heard of, and were as clean gone as if they had never existed.

At the time, although some portions of the country were thickly populated, it was not evenly peopled throughout ; but there were numerous centres round which the tribes were densely congregated, with great zones of open country around and intervening between them, the resorts of countless herds of game, and where the aboriginal Bushman still followed the chase, like his forefathers before him, in spite of the intruders who had occupied all the most arable portions of the land, where the invading hordes had for some generations established their great agricultural settlements.

As will be seen, on a reference to the table of chiefs, the Bahurutsi divided into three great branches, the eldest or great branch was the house of Mangope, whose representative now resides at Kolobeng, and whose chief has always been acknowledged as paramount over the others ; the second or inferior branch was looked upon as the house of Moilo, whose members are now far more numerous than those of the elder ; the third offshoot was that of the Batlaru, or the men of the Python. Many minor clans, now lost sight of, have been thrown off from these, whose history it would be unnecessary for us, even if we were able, to pursue.

The paucity of traditions which appear to have survived with regard to their chiefs would seem to indicate that no one of the original stock rendered himself, for many generations, so conspicuous, or sufficiently famous, as to have left his impress upon the tribal history.

What little is to be learnt about them has always been from fragmentary allusions to them in connection with other tribes. It is thus that we gather that the Bakuena sometimes made forays upon them, with the hope of relieving them of some of their sleek herds ; and that their powerful relatives, the Bangwaketse, attacked them under their warlike chief Makiba, when Wakanye, one of their captains, was slain. Their vast wealth in cattle was no doubt the great inducement which instigated these onslaughts upon them.

Crocodiles were so numerous in the rivers of the country that in the days of the Bahurutsi occupation they have been known to attack and overpower both cows and oxen which incautiously approached the water to drink.

In our memoir of the Batlapin, we saw that the daughter of the great house, or that of the chief wife or queen, asserted her prerogative of appointing a successor to the chieftainship when no male heirs had been born to the house which she represented, at the time of her father's death. The history of the Bahurutsi chiefs furnishes us with another instance of the old-time customs which still survived among these South African tribes.

The great queen of Sibiwure, at the time of his death had no children by her husband, but still, although he had left sons by his other or inferior wives, the right of succession was in her house. It was therefore ordained, in accordance with ancient custom, that his brother Lekweleng should consort with her that he might raise up seed for his brother, Sibiwure being looked upon as the reputed father of any offspring which might arise from such a union. In consequence of this arrangement, a son was born to the great house, whose rights and privileges were exactly the same as if he had been the actual son of the chief himself, Lekweleng, his actual father, remaining until his coming of age his guardian, and acting as regent until that time arrived.

This Lekweleng, according to Campbell, appears to have been, for his time, a considerable traveller. He had traversed the country for eight days' journey to the eastward of the territory of his own tribe ; and it is interesting to learn that it was probably through this channel that the Bahurutsi first heard of a people still farther to the eastward than their daring chief penetrated, called Matabili, living near the " Great Water."

These were probably the original Amazulu, who were then beginning to drive the coast tribes before them ; and thus some of the fugitives crossing the Drakensberg commenced to spread the terrible fame of " the men who disappeared," as they were called by the Bakuena tribes when they saw them advancing under cover of their great shields. Through the same channel they learnt of the existence of another nation to the north-east, called Molokwam, that used only bows and arrows in war. He stated on his return that all the intervening tribes which he passed had houses, dress, and fields similar to the Bahurutsi.

In 1823 Lekweleng or Ithlasing was still at the head of the tribe at Kurrechane, when the Mantatees first fell upon the Bakuena tribes, destroying many of their towns and slaughtering immense numbers of the people, after which, while advancing towards the west, the invaders met their first check at the hands of the redoubtable Makaba and his Bangwaketse warriors. Thus baulked of their expected prey, these swarming hordes, burning with a vindictive desire to wipe out the rebuff they had just received, invaded the Bahurutsi territory, darkening the hills with their savage and relentless legions.

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Kurrechane was taken by storm, and not only laid in ruins, but almost completely razed. An indiscriminate butchery of the inhabitants who were not fortunate enough to make their escape accompanied the onslaught, the invaders stripping them of the greater portion of their great herds of cattle, and carrying havoc and desolation wherever they went. Then turning upon the Barolong, as we have already seen, they stormed their towns and scattered the inhabitants. The alarm spread to the Batlapin, and the terrible report of their cannibal propensities increased the consternation and dismay of the tribes threatened with invasion.

Ithlasing's death must have occurred about this time, as no further mention appears to be made of him. After the storm had passed, some Bahurutsi fugitives again settled themselves near the site of old Kurrechane. In 1829 these fragments of their tribe were living at Mosega, under Mokatla.

They had lost all their flocks by the Mantatees, and were living congregated in a glen, their wide spreading corn lands, which had once covered the sides of the sloping hills and filled the valleys, were lying almost totally neglected ; and they were subsisting on game, roots, berries, and what little food they could raise from their diminished cornfields.

At this time another terror was growing upon them, and they were living in fear lest Moselekatze should one day make them captives. The most advanced outposts to the eastward of these dreaded Matabili were in this year at a distance from the Bahurutsi of about one hundred miles, or about four or five days' journey by waggon from Mosega, the intervening country being beautiful and fertile, so that no barrier now interposed between them.

Shortly after the terrible catastrophe which befel the great Griqua raid under Barend Barends into the Matabili country in 1831, Moselekatze rapidly extended his conquests to the westward. The French missionaries, Messrs. Pellissier and Lemue, had by this time visited Mokatla, and established a mission at Mosega.

As the Matabili chief advanced, he sent to summon the white men to his headquarters, but fearing the wily despot, they fled to Lithako. Almost immediately afterwards the incensed Moselekatze attacked Mokatla and his people, and put the Bahurutsi to flight ; most of them, however, fled at his approach. Whatever remained of the once populous town of Kurrechane, the former great-place and pride of their tribe, was rooted out, and the remnant of the inhabitants scattered in various directions.

Mokatla, the chief, fled from his country with his people, a portion of whom took refuge in a small forest not far from the banks of the Kolong. Others sought refuge in the confines of the inhospitable Kalahari ; while the great Abaku-Zulu conqueror established his headquarters on the Tolane river, near Marikwa, and fixed one of his great military stations in the fertile basin of Mosega, asserting his sway at the same time as far as the Malopo.

Harris, who visited Moselekatze at this spot, says that the scattered inhabitants of this part of the country consisted principally of the Barolong, Bangwaketse, Batlapin, and Bahurutsi. These poor wretches, he writes, lived in small communities, and being destitute of cattle, depended entirely for subsistence on locusts or such game as chance might direct to their pitfalls. Near Sitlagole river many extensive villages totally deserted were passed, rude earthen vessels, fragments of ostrich eggshells, and portions of the skins of wild animals, however, proved that they had been recently inhabited. During the whole of two days, he adds, not a human being was seen.

At the time of Mr. Moffat's visit the remains of the ancient great-place of the Bahurutsi, which had taken its name from the range of mountains Kurrechane or Chuenyane, could not be found, while the number of lions which had congregated in this desolated region was fearful. Such had become the condition of the country that the lions of this part, having gorged on human flesh, did not spend their time in looking at the human eye, but sought the easiest and most expeditious way of making a meal of a man.

After the defeat of the previously invincible Matabili by the emigrant farmers and the flight of Moselekatze to the north, the remnants of the Bahurutsi, Bakatla, and other tribes returned to their old land ; but the terrible experiences of former years did not bring peace to the country. They were no sooner rid of their great common enemy, than the former system of never-ending raids and petty wars and struggles for the possession of cattle once more commenced among them, and continued without intermission until the Boers, pressing in from the south, forcibly subjected all those who came within their reach, and occupied the country.

For the purpose we have in view it will not be necessary to pursue the career of the Bahurutsi further ; we will therefore pass on to the consideration of the next branch which presents itself.

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The Batlaru, the Men of the Python.

In the appellation and siboko of this tribe, we have an instance of either the symbol being adopted in honour of the name of their chief at the time of their separation from the parent stem, or else the chief himself assuming on the occasion the proud title of the Man of the Python par excellence, a designation upon which it is certain the chiefs of the Bakuena and Bataung particularly prided themselves, namely, of being called " the Man " of the Crocodile or of the Lion respectively.

The Batlaru were also sometimes known by the name of Bamothlo-a-re, the men of the Wild Olive, from the fact of their great ancestor Motlaru, who first separated with his people from the main branch, erecting his hut and those of his followers under wide-spreading olive trees.

This double object of veneration would seem to suggest the probability of some incident having occurred at this halting-place which aroused their superstition, in which the visit of some enormous python to the shady grove which afforded them shelter was connected, and from which circumstance it acquired the name of Matlarung, the (actual) place of the Python, as well as that of the chief, the Motlaru, or the man of the Python.

In 1820 Mr. J. Campbell visited this tribe, when he obtained the following corroborative evidence with regard to them. The Batlaru originally constituted part of the Bahurutsi nation ; but wishing to separate, they pretended to start some two hundred and twenty years ago upon a jackal hunt.

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This excuse would naturally appear a feasible one, on account of the great value which was placed upon the skins of these animals for making the most admired karosses. From this hunting expedition, however, they never returned. They migrated with their herds, their wives, and little ones in a southerly direction, towards the Koeromanie, where after thus asserting their independence, they settled, taking up their first residence near a shady grove of trees (wild olives), which ever after obtained the name of Matlarung.

From that time to 1820 they were ruled by an unbroken line of chiefs in eight descents. At the time of Mr. Campbell's visit, Lahesi, then an old man, was the chief of the tribe. The Batlapin claimed the tract of country in which their forefathers had settled, and they had ever since acknowledged them as superiors, by giving presents as a kind of tribute, and agreeing that they would not engage in any wars or expeditions without the consent of the Batlapin chief. In other respects, however, they were perfectly independent.

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The great place of their chief was at Patane ; Kuice and Turiche were two other towns belonging to them. The Batlaru painted their bodies red, in a similar manner to the Batlapin, and powdered their hair with a blue sparkling powder. They sowed Kaffir corn, melons, and beans. During the hunting months, from May to September, the chief resided at Kuice six days' journey from Lithako ; this place was situated in what was formerly the bed of the Malopo.

Lahesi stated that when he was a boy the Koeromanie river ran along the desert, but since that time it had ceased to do so. Formerly, he said, no buffaloes came near them, but of late they had come. Neither had they lions or hyenas in 1820, but some panthers. None of the Bushmen, he added, now robbed them, formerly they did, but he killed many, and they had never troubled his tribe since.N He declared that the Batlaru were the only people who had a clean country : no robbing Bushmen, lions, or hyenas, but many serpents, some of which were very large.

Notes: Evidence, nevertheless, that the aboriginal inhabitants clung to their old country until a recent period.

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About the time the confederate tribes attacked the Barolong under Gontse, Tauana, Sihunelo, and other leaders, and the fatal " battle of the chiefs " was fought, a formidable horde of banditti under the leadership of Jacob Cloete and Klaas Dreyer, from the Langeberg, made a desperate onslaught upon the Batlaru.

These marauders were a heterogeneous mass of Griquas, Bastaards from the Cape Colony, Namaquas, Koranas, Bushmen, and others collected in the Langeberg of Griqualand West, on the border of the Kalahari. Being armed with guns, they soon made themselves formidable, and committed many outrages throughout the neighbouring country ; while their attack on the Batlaru proved only the precursor of a succession of disasters to that people.

Mothibi, the chief of the Batlapin, in speaking of this second set of Bergenaars, said that when an enemy came from the interior, they had neither guns nor horses, and there was some chance of escape ; but when the Griquas and Koranas came, who could obtain these means of destruction from the white people, the heart of the Batlapin could think of nothing but the calamities which awaited them. The Batlapin professed to assist the Batlaru against these lawless banditti, but, notwithstanding Mothibi bewailed so pathetically the evils such marauders committed, instead of rendering the necessary aid, he seized the cattle of the weaker tribe.

This act of treachery excited the indignation of the Batlaru ; they made reprisals, and as in all such cases, bloodshed followed rapine. A meeting was convened at Koeromanie, to which the Batlaru chiefs were invited, but as Mothibi had neither the wisdom, honesty, nor decision to order his people to resign their ill-gotten spoil, the Batlaru returned mortified, and held him up to derision in their dance and song. Irritated at this behaviour, the Batlapin chief resolved to muster his warriors once more. The next day the commando set off thirsting for plunder. The result of this was the devastation of the towns and villages of the Batlaru, who fled at their approach.

In the midst of this the Batlapin discovered that they themselves were attacked by the same marauding Griquas. Their women and children were seen flying in all directions, while the immense columns of smoke shewed that many of the towns and villages were on fire. At the same time the very people who might have been their most serviceable allies at such a juncture were fugitives in the wilderness, owing to the acts of treachery and spoliation which they themselves had committed.

The date of Lahesi's death is not known, but Tlogu was the great chief of this tribe when Mr. Moffat wrote of them. His great place was at the same Patane, some twenty miles west of Koeromanie. Such being the slight sketch we have been able to make of this branch of the great group we are treating of, we will now make a passing allusion to the next which presents itself.

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The Bamangwato, the people of Ngwato, and The Batauana, the men of the Young Lions.

Very little is known either of the people of Ngwato, the son of Malope, as the men of this tribe frequently designate themselves (Bamangwato a Malope), or of their history, except the facts which have been previously mentioned. We have seen, when treating of the siboko of the Bachoana, Bakuena, and Basutu tribes, that the Crocodile is as much an object of superstitious dread to a Momangwato as to a Mokuena himself.

We have already pointed out that this arose probably from their longer connection with the main branch of the Bakuena, and the more friendly conditions under which their ultimate separation took place, than that of the Bahurutsi, when their common ancestor Malope appears to have parted in anger from his father, and was partly disinherited by Masilo I in consequence.

The Bamangwato have long been looked upon as one of the most industrious tribes of the interior. Their skill in the working of metals is unsurpassed by any of the native tribes, the Mashona being the only people who can attempt to compete with them.

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The elaboration and finish, especially when we take into consideration the primitive methods and crude implements they employ in their manufacture, of their assagais, their elephant-spears, harpoons, double-barbed arrows, and formidable battle-axes, and the ornamentation which they sometimes attempt upon their ironwork, are surprising. It was this wonderful skill in metals which saved their tribe from annihilation when their territory was invaded by the hitherto pitiless Matabili.

Their skilled workmen were spared upon condition that Moselekatze should receive as an annual tribute a certain number of assagai blades, axes, etc. Some few of them fled to the north-eastern side of the Kalahari, but the great majority remained near the mountains they had formerly occupied, to the north of the old Bakuena country, the vassal smiths of the great " conqueror of nations," as the ruler of the Matabili was frequently styled.

The traditions of this tribe have never been collected, so that nothing of their history is at present known, except that during the lifetime of the old chief Kgama I a quarrel took place between his two sons Kgari and Tauana, when a division of the tribe took place, and Tauana became the founder of the branch clan Batauana, the men of the Young Lions, whose descendants have been found by modem travellers in the region of Lake Ngami.

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The Bangwaketse, the People of Ngwaketse.

The siboko of the Bangwaketse was the same as that of the ancient stem from which they had sprung, and after their separation they continued to dance and revere the Crocodile until they became one of the most powerful and noted of all the numerous offshoots of the family to which they belonged. They also boasted in the title of Bangwaketse a Malope in a similar manner to the Bahurutsi and Bamangwato, and were therefore more nearly allied to the paramount chiefs of the Bahurutsi than even the great Bakuena themselves.

As agriculturists, the Bakuena alone equalled them in the extent of their operations, and the enormous corn jars which they built up of earthenware, capable of containing upwards of two hundred gallons, were the astonishment of early travellers who visited them.

Campbell states that they cultivated more ground, and had a greater abundance of millet, beans, pulse, and watermelons than any of their neighbours, and more than this, they did not paint themselves so much as the Batlapin, and were cleanly in their houses, in cooking and eating, and, what would seem rather surprising with people possessing abundance of cattle, neither they nor the Barolong practised riding of any kind, not even on a pack ox.N

Notes: This shews a marked distinction between them and the nomadic pastoral Hottentot race, who seem to have practised riding from a remote period ; probably their erratic propensities, in contradistinction to the agricultural proclivities of the former, may account for this.

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Great centres of population like that of the Bangwaketse depended more upon their extensive agricultural operations than their pastoral pursuits, although some of the more powerful tribes possessed immense herds of cattle. From this cause therefore there was less inducement to wander about in search of pasturage, and they would, as a natural consequence, form more permanent settlements, selecting the most fertile localities for their great- places, or chief towns, or rather collections of towns.

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These more fruitful and favoured tracts of country formed the nuclei around which the people of the respective tribes congregated, which from the amount of their population and the extent of cultivation which surrounded them filled the early missionaries and travellers who visited them, before the great native wars, with amazement. Under such conditions, it was but natural that they were found to have made greater advances in the construction and comfort of their dwellings, and had arrived at a greater degree of perfection in various manufactures. Their pottery, their weapons, their agricultural implements, and their wooden utensils far excelled those produced by other tribes living under less favourable circumstances.

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These Bangwaketse, together with the Bakuena themselves, the Bamangwato, and some other branches of the group, may therefore be looked upon as having made greater strides towards civilisation than any of the others then pressing to the southern portion of the African continent ; while, as a necessity, from the very conditions of life by which they were surrounded, the period occupied in their migration would, under ordinary circumstances, be of far longer duration than that of those whose chief means of support were their flocks and herds.

Nevertheless a continuous struggle was ever going on between the various tribes, and even branches of tribes, for the possession of cattle ; and when from time to time a more ambitious and warlike chief than ordinary arose, his fame and that of his tribe quickly spread among the others, while some of the weaker tribes in his immediate neighbourhood became tributary to him, and thus increased his strength.

The warlike renown of any particular tribe seems almost in every case to have been derived more from the personal daring and energy of the particular chief ruling them at the time than from any other cause, a fame which generally collapsed at once at the time of his death, when not unfrequently, owing to the dissensions of the rival claimants for power, the tribe itself was torn into several branches, the only remains of their loyalty to the elder branch being shewn in some slight acknowledgment of precedence and brief authority to the paramount head of the original stock, which allowed him the right of priority in all tribal rites and ceremonies when any members of that particular portion of the tribe were present.

Their wars were more cattle forays on an extensive scale than determined invasions for the purpose of securing territorial aggrandisement. Such expeditions were not unfrequently undertaken against tribes living at a distance, sometimes of two hundred miles or more, with the view of taking their intended foes by surprise, and being able to pounce down upon their cattle with little risk to themselves.

The possibility of carrying out such incursions, and traversing the intervening country without discovery, or interfering, or coming in contact with the tribes which must have been passed on the way, shews that there must have been even at that time considerable tracts unoccupied by these stronger races, which were still merely roamed over by countless herds of game and the scattered hunter tribes who were the true and original possessors of the soil, but who were never taken into consideration when speaking of the inhabitants of the country. Doubtless all the rich and well-watered portions, specially adapted for their primitive mode of agriculture, had long been appropriated by the intruding tribes, and were in many parts densely populated by them.

Such appears to have been the condition of these various tribal groups at the time when Makaba II commenced his ambitious career ; but even he (judging from the fragmentary portions of his history which have been preserved) seems to have been more desirous of increasing the bovine riches of his tribe by making large and continuous captures of his enemies' or rivals' cattle, than of subduing them by actual conquest, in order to bring them under his dominion.

Much less had he a desire of annihilating them, as was frequently the case in the terrible wars which broke out about the time of his death. This warlike chief adopted the custom of sending an expedition against one or other of the surrounding nations every moon, while the moonlight lasted, the expeditionary force always returning when the nights grew dark.

The warriors of this tribe had a custom of making scars on their left sides, as marks of distinction, which recorded the number of enemies they had slain in battle, and which reflected honour upon them among their fellow countrymen. Thus the principal messenger sent to the Batlapin during Mr. Campbell's visit by the chief Makaba had five cuts or scars across his left side, a proof that he had killed five men.

This mode of recording the number of enemies slain by any warrior, by making a corresponding number of long scars on his body, was also practised by some of the other tribes as well as the Bangwaketse ; one of the Batlou was observed with ten of these distinctive scores upon his back, which were marks for ten men he had killed in his lifetime.

In 1820 the Bangwaketse appear to have been one of the most restless and formidable tribes in the Interior. They were generally successful both in capturing cattle and in inflicting loss of life upon their opponents in their frequent expeditions. Their power was shewn when a combination of ten other nations or large tribes was formed with the intention of attacking and crushing Makaba, but they could not make any impression upon him.

His country was of a character well adapted for defence, being intersected with precipitous hills, with deep gorges and ravines, and still more mountainous towards the north and east. The vigour of his warriors was also remarkable when compared to some of the Bachoana tribes. They did not paint their bodies like the latter, but were accustomed to frequent ablutions, habits which probably conduced to their superior physical development.

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Little is known of the history of this tribe from the time of Ngwaketse, its founder, to the death of Moleta, the father of Makaba. It is said that this chief was poisoned by his son Makaba, for the sake of obtaining one of his wives, to whom the son was attached. Of the intervening ancestors of Makaba nothing is known, except the sequence of their names, as shewn in the list of the Bangwaketse chiefs.

Makaba the Second, or as he was sometimes called, Mori-Moleta (the son of Moleta), had his great-place at a spot called Kuakue, about two hundred miles to the north-east of Lithako It was sometimes called Moleta, probably after his father during his lifetime. It appears that he caused his father's death about 1790 ; after which it is said that this native despot had nearly all his younger children put to death, lest they should murder him as he had murdered his father. T'shouse or Choase,N his eldest son, was, however, allowed to survive. Tchoi, his great-wife, fled from him to her father, who instead of returning her, gave her to a powerful chief named Brumila, as his wife.

Notes: This son is called Tsusane by Moffat. The custom of the same individual altering his name at different stages of his life leads to this apparent confusion in the names of individuals.

Makaba's entire life was filled up in making attacks and reprisals upon his neighbours. The Bakuena seemed special objects of his restless maliciousness. In his father's lifetime he led an expedition against them, when he succeeded in capturing many of their cattle. In a second raid against the same tribe he was equally successful, and even made one of their chiefs, named Sichangwa, a prisoner, whom he afterwards liberated. In a third attack, however, he slew Sichangwa, which so enraged the Bakuena that they rallied, made a furious attack upon Makaba, killed many of his people, and captured many of his cattle.

Notwithstanding this repulse, he attacked and killed Wikanye, a great captain of the Bahurutsi ; he drove away his own uncle Kanye and murdered his children, and carried on continuous forays, harrying the neighbouring tribes on every side, until the Bakuena on the one hand and the Batlapin on the other entered into an offensive and defensive alliance against him. Their attack was to be simultaneous.

Makaba, however, not only defended himself, but beat them off with great slaughter. Hence arose the uniform enmity of the Batlapin chief against Makaba, while the former and his tribe lived in constant dread of an attack from so powerful an enemy.

Makaba, like all South African despots, possessed such absolute power over his people that all his orders, however hazardous, were instantly obeyed. Thus when Jan Bloem the Elder, at the head of the plundering horde that elected him their chief, made his desperate attack upon the territories of the Bangwaketse, Makaba became so exasperated that he ordered a chosen emissary to go and assassinate Bloem. The man went, but mistaking his victim, struck down another person instead of Bloem. He then fled, and attempted to make his escape ; but being hotly pursued was overtaken and put to death.

In the latter part of Molehabangwe's reign, the chief of the Bangwaketse invited the Batlapin and some of the neighbouring Koranas to join him in an expedition against a nation beyond his territories. They complied with his request, and marched together to attack the enemy. On the field of battle, before the engagement commenced, the Bangwaketse left the Batlapin and the Koranas to fight it out by themselves, when about eighty of them were killed. This act of treachery the Batlapin considered as a snare which had been laid to entrap them, and thus ensure their destruction.

Makaba by such means at length established his fame as the most formidable and restless chief among these native tribes. It was doubtless this continued state of war and uncertainty on the part of this powerful and objectionable neighbour which induced several branches of the Bakuena and other tribes to migrate more to the south about this time, as we find that some of them had already established themselves in the eastern portions of the present Free State before they were overtaken by the devastating wars carried on by the Amangwane under Matuana, the Mantatees under their Amazonian chieftainess, and the Matabili under Moselekatze.

At this time a considerable number of nations occupied the country to the north-east and east of the territory of this tribe, which afforded an extensive field for the marauding expeditions of this irrepressible chief. Among them were the Bapula (the men of the Rain), Bapuana, Bapiri (a branch of), Batpu, Mulihe, Matshakwa, Bapurgi, Ba-poo (the men of the Bull), Mahehe, Boperis, Bachacha, Omanribe, Selulana, Bokoti, Sebotya, Bakohe.

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All these tribes extended in the directions specified, until, as the natives stated, the borders of the Batshou reached a great river so broad that you could scarcely see the other side. Its course was towards the rising sun and they affirmed that it ran into a great water that would frighten one to look at.

They reported that all the nations beyond the Bahurutsi were similar in their manners, customs, and method of building houses, and so thickly was the country populated that their large towns were hardly ever more than a day's journey from each other, so that there was no occasion to sleep in the fields.

Mr. Campbell obtained the following list of tribes living to the east-south-east of the Bangwaketse in 1813 :— Maklootua, Moonshuyane, Bakuena, Boramateesa, Leghoya, Bochakapeele, Mooboobe, Makoane, Bamootslaatsa, Barapootsaane, Bakote, and Mapantue. On the south side of the Vaal river the Molesanyane, and beyond them in a north-easterly direction, towards Delagoa Bay, the Maquapa and Matslakoo.

It is very probable that in the above list of tribes the name of the chief who ruled them at the time is given as the tribal designation, thus increasing the difficulty in any attempt to identify them. At any rate they serve to show the comparatively dense native population which had congregated in portions of the country now called the Transvaal, although the greater number have disappeared from the face of the earth, and that in a shorter space of time than fifty years.

The hostile collisions of the Bachoana and Bakuena tribes of the period we are now treating of appear to have been as a rule of short continuance, and differed greatly from the terrible exterminating wars which followed, that took their rise from the wide-spreading struggles which originated among the Kaffir tribes of the coast group, who, like a devastating tide wave, ultimately rolled inward among the more effeminate and less warlike Bachoana and Basutu.

The warriors of the latter made their onslaughts, like an irregular, undisciplined multitude, every one considering himself at liberty to act almost as he pleased. If one side was bold and furious at the onset, some of their opponents were quickly panic-stricken and gave way. Their example was readily followed by those who were near them, and the flight soon became general.

The pursuit of the defeated army continued as long as the main body of the conquerors were able to run ; all during the flight was devastation and slaughter, as it was not their custom to take prisoners. In their attempts to escape, many threw away their caps, karosses, sandals, shields, and even assagais to increase their speed. The pursuit being over, the vanquished generally occupied themselves with rest, or in venting their chagrin in mutual reproaches for cowardice.

Moffat states that Makaba dreaded the displeasure of none of the surrounding tribes. War was almost perpetual between him and the Bakuena. From this it is evident that a great many of the tribes mentioned in the previous lists were clans, or minor offshoots of the great Bakuena group, under which name they are comprehended when speaking of them collectively. Beyond the Bakuena, Moffat adds, the Bamangwato were found, distinguished for industry and riches, and beyond the Bamangwato, the Bamagata-tsela, who seemed to form the limit of these tribes in that direction.

The chief town, Kuakue, covered a vast extent, and appeared larger than any other South African native town ; while a number of smaller ones were spread throughout the surrounding valleys. With regard to their houses and various domestic utensils, the Bangwaketse were far in advance of the Batlapin, not only in their construction, but in their cleanliness. They were also great corn growers. Some of their com jars were from eight to twelve feet in diameter, and nearly the same in height.

Owing to the fatal jealousy which Makaba displayed towards his children, his chief wife fled with her two sons, one of whom was Tsusane or Tshouse, the eldest, who was ultimately slain by the warriors of his father for treason. This incident is thus related by Moffat. Tsusane, the eldest son of Makaba, was an ambitious youth, and planned the murder of his father that he might seize the chieftainship.

At first he attempted to win over the men of the tribe ; this failing, he secretly got a deep hole dug in the path his father was wont to frequent, in which he got sharp stakes fastened, and the whole covered as if to entrap game, hoping that on the coming morn his father might be the unfortunate victim. The plot was discovered, and Tsusane fled. He then attempted to influence the Barolong and Batlapin to assist him in an attempt to dethrone his father. Again he was unsuccessful.

Makaba, who appears to have been greatly attached to his rebellious son, gave strict injunctions to his warriors that in any conflicts between them and his son's adherents, they were to spare his son's life. In one of his attacks upon a cattle outpost he was defeated.

Although a man of great swiftness, one still swifter overtook him, who shouted, " throw down your weapons, and your life is safe ! " He turned and threw his assagai at his pursuer, but missed his mark. He was again overtaken, when the same kind message was sounded in his ears, with the addition, " your father loves you, and will not kill you." Again he hurled another assagai at his pursuer, and fled.

The third time the voice of mercy reached him, and while drawing his battle-axe from his shield, his pursuer transfixed him with a javelin. The infatuated father so mourned the loss of this unworthy son that he nearly took vengeance upon the man who thus in sheer self-defence deprived him of his intractable firstborn.

The year 1823 was an eventful one in the history of the Bangwaketse. The formidable hordes which were marshalled under the fierce inspiration of the fiery Amazon Ma Ntatesi, after spreading havoc among a considerable portion of the Bakuena tribes, lured with the hope of seizing rich spoils from the Bangwaketse, turned with their full forces into the territories of Makaba. Here they succeeded in surprising and storming some of his outstations, and dispersing some of the outlying portions of his tribe.

The invaders thought victory was certain, and their dense legions swarmed over the hills towards his great-place ; but the old warrior chief proved himself equal to the danger which threatened him.

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Gathering every available warrior, he guarded every pass, entrapping his enemies by the same tactics which had proved so effectual in resisting the elder Bloem at the head of his Korana clans. He laid clever ambuscades in every direction, into which they fell when they endeavoured to penetrate to his great town. Hundreds were thus slain, so that in the end they were not only defeated, but driven back with considerable slaughter.

He was thus able to boast of having accomplished that which no other tribe, however powerful, had yet succeeded in doing, forcing the redoubtable Mantatee warriors to recoil before the impetuosity of his own. After this achievement he styled himself " the Man of Conquest ! " When speaking of this conflict, he said, " There lie the bleached bones of the enemy, who came upon our hills like the locusts, but who melted before us by the shaking of the spear ! "

After this great triumph, the Bangwaketse were at the pinnacle of their greatness, but their fall and overthrow followed quickly. The terrific Matabili war cloud was already ominously looming above the horizon, and throwing its advancing shadow over the Bakuena country.

The Mantatee hordes, shattered as they finally had been before Lithako, were still spread over many parts of the land, filling it with dread, while a number of the dispossessed tribes strengthened their ranks, and by coalescing with the scattered divisions rendered them powerful enough to inflict upon others the same cruel wrongs which they themselves had suffered.

It was such a combined force, composed principally of Bafukeng, Bapatsa, and Baperi warriors, under the leadership of Sebitoane, who on the dismemberment of the Mantatee hordes had separated himself from the main body of the invaders, which now attacked the Bangwaketse, an attack which resulted in the death of the powerful and hitherto invincible Makaba.

It seems strange at first sight that the chief who had shown such bravery and fortitude in repelling the entire force of the Mantatee hordes should at last be conquered by a single division of that formidable confederacy ; this was caused, however, not so much from any degeneracy in his people as by the treachery of his son, Sebogo or Gasiitsiwe, his surviving heir, who, according to Dr. Casalis, committed the most atrocious parricide to obtain the object of his ambition, the chieftainship of his tribe.

Of his infamous conduct this writer gives the following account. His father, feeling himself too old to fight, placed his son Sebogo at the head of the younger warriors, and sent him to repulse the invaders, who were advancing towards his capital. Sebogo set off, but hardly was he out of sight when he ordered his men to halt, and addressed the following speech to them : " I am weary of obeying old men, it is time we ourselves should be men. When the enemy appears do not hurl your assagais, flee away and hide yourselves in the woods. The Baperi, thinking we are vanquished, will go and massacre the old men in the town ! "

The wretch was obeyed. The enemy passed, without opposition, and stormed the town. The veteran chief was slain amidst heaps of his equally veteran warriors, some incapable from their extreme age of bearing arms ; and thus the men whose valour had raised the Bangwaketse fame to the height it had attained cruelly fell beneath the battle-axes of the confederate invaders.

When Sebogo and his men considered they had allowed sufficient time for the accomplishment of this portion of the tragedy, they suddenly reappeared, and rushing upon the overconfident enemy, who were indulging in all the license of their easily purchased victory, drove them from the town with considerable slaughter, and retook from them the booty they had seized. Thus Sebogo or Gasiitsiwe succeeded his father as chief of the Bangwaketse. This event took place some time about 1824, but his rule was neither a long nor a prosperous one.

Notwithstanding the consecutive attacks of the Mantatees and of the horde under the Bapatsa chief Sebitoane, the Bangwaketse were still rich in cattle, and the Matabili, after deluging the Bakuena country with blood and marking their track with the smoke of burning towns, at length in their turn attacked Sebogo and the once-powerful tribe of the Bangwaketse.

The short-stabbing assagai of the Matabili proved to the Bangwaketse warriors a more terrible weapon than the javelin and battle-axe of their former opponents. They displayed some of the old martial bravery of their tribe, but it availed nothing, and only increased the carnage by their irresistible enemies. They fought, but they were half annihilated ; men, women, and children were mercilessly butchered, their prosperous towns were wrapt in flames, and the fugitives who escaped dispersed in various directions.

Some fled and took shelter in the wilds of the Kalahari, where a great number of them and their cattle perished of thirst. The Bakuena and the Bamangwato, writes Dr. Livingstone, as well as the Bangwaketse, all fled thither ; and the Matabili marauders, who came from a well-watered coast, perished by hundreds in their attempts to follow them. One of the Bangwaketse chiefs, more wily than the rest, sent false guides to lead them on a track where, for hundreds of miles, not a drop of water could be found, and they were parched to death in consequence.

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Many of the Bakuena themselves sank under the privation, and their old men who could have told stories relative to the history of the tribes died in these flights.

After a life of trouble and dangers, the treacherous Sebogo himself died far from the land of his fathers, on the roadside, where three of his old companions-in-arms dug a grave for him with their assagai points.

It will not be necessary to follow the career of this tribe further. The great influence which they exerted upon the surrounding tribes, increasing the tendency in the weaker branches to migrate towards the south, was all centred in the life of a single chief, Makaba II, or as he proudly styled himself, " the Man of Conquest," and the power which he had built up during his life-time seemed to fall helplessly to pieces as soon as he was removed from the scene.

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THE BAKUENA OF THE NORTH (the Men of the Crocodile).


The ancient Bakuena appear to have been more prolific in offshoots than any other tribe in South Africa, and Mogale, the great ancestor of their chiefs, outrivals in this respect the celebrated Zwidi, the Umkulunkulu of the Frontier Kaffirs.

Besides the important branches we have already mentioned, and the main branch of which we are about to treat, we have the tribes which migrated still farther to the south, including the Bafukeng and their kindred clans, together with those who still call themselves Bakuena and who became divided into the houses of Bamonaheng and Bamokotedi and their sub-divisions, all of which are of undoubted Bakuena origin, whose descent can be traced to the great head of the family.

There are others also who affirm that they are offshoots of the original Bakuena stock, although the names of the chiefs who form the connecting links have not been preserved, at least have not yet been obtained from any native authority. Four of the principal of these are the tribe of Makgatla, in Magaliesberg, Transvaal ; the Baphalane tribe, in the direction of Zoutpansberg ; the Bagamatlhaku, also living in the Transvaal ; and the Bagmolochwana, living under the Barolong chief Moroka at Thaba Nchu.

Of these tribes, however, it will not be necessary to speak, as they never took a leading part in the history of the country, although their existence serves to show how widely the ramifications of the great Bakuena group are spread.

In treating of the Bahurutsi and others, we have given an outline of what is known of the most ancient chiefs, who became the founders of the various important branches already described. It appears certain that these remote ancestors must have migrated from the tropical or subtropical regions of the continent.

Many of their traditions are most distinct upon this point ; and they state emphatically that their forefathers came from " the far, far north," that the sun's shadow has altered from the days of their remote forefathers, that before that time their fathers said they came from the rising sun, and that this is the reason why in burying their dead they place the face of the deceased person in that direction, that they may see whence their remote, or rather their earliest, progenitors came.

It seems that the Bachoana branch of this family led the van in this great migratory movement, and from all that can be gathered from native sources the sequence of it was in the order we have already pointed out, viz : — 1st, the pioneer tribes we have described ; 2nd, the Batlapin and Barolong, leading the van of the main body, and then 3rd, the great Bakuena group now under consideration.

These last say that the old Bakuena nation came from the north, and passed through the country in a south-easterly direction until they came to a river which they called the Likwa or Lekwa (the Upper Vaal) ; that near this some of their clans separated from the main body, which again turned with their faces towards the north, until they reached the central and western portions of the present Transvaal, where all the great branches of their nation settled.

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Owing to the fact that Malope, the eldest son of Masilo I, was disinherited by his father, the chiefs of the Bakuena consider themselves the representatives of the great head of the family, and that they are superior in rank to those of the Bamangwato and Bangwaketse, as they assert that when the original tribe broke up into branches, the hereditary chieftainship was retained in that of the Bakuena.

Thus there is a kind of dual representation among the chiefs of this family, for while precedence is conceded to the Bahurutsi in all ceremonial rites, such as circumcision, the eating of the first fruits, etc., in right of their descent from the eldest son, the privileges of paramount chief are awarded to the descendant of Kuena, as the great representative of the object of their special veneration. He is the veritable Mokuena, the Man of the Crocodile, and therefore stands first in rank as the head of the nation ; and it is for this reason that even to the present day all the branches mentioned in this memoir occasionally send presents to the chief of the Northern Bakuena, as the direct successor of the traditional paramount chief of the once united nation.

As an illustration that this claim is practically acknowledged, should the chief of the northern branch be hunting together with those of any of the others mentioned, he would take, by right, all such portions of the game as are looked upon as specially reserved for the great chief, even although the game had been killed by one of the other chiefs.

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This tribe and the minor clans more immediately connected with it seem to have occupied the rich and fertile country north of the Magaliesbergen, or as they were called by some of the early missionaries the Cashan mountains, as far as the Limpopo and the valleys drained by its various tributaries. It was in this territory that their great tribal centres were established, around which a teeming population congregated. One of their great towns was at Lokwani, on the Motsi-Motlabi, a branch of the Nogotwani, a tributary of the Limpopo.N

Notes: Evidence of Poo (the Bull), a Northern Mokuena, born at the place he mentions about the commencement of the present century. Notes of C. S. Orpen.

Campbell informs us that these Bakuena tribes, Makquana as he terms them, lived in 1813 to the north-east of Lithako, and that their great town was three times the size of that of the Batlapin chief, which would give it a probable population of some thirty thousand inhabitants.

The modem Thaba Nchu will give us an idea of the arrangement of one of these places and the manner in which the detached suburbs, each under the rule of a petty chief, were scattered round the main centre, where the residence of the paramount chief was situated, as well as the likhotla or place of public meeting, while vast corn lands, frequently some hundreds of acres in extent, spread round the whole of them. All these taken in their entirety formed the great tribal town, and such we must picture to ourselves if we would desire to obtain a correct idea of these centres of native population called " the great-places " of the various Bakuena or Bachoana tribes.

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There can be no doubt but that in the earlier days, before they were disturbed by foreign invaders, the Bakuena were far more civilised than not only the ruder and more warlike Coast-Kaffirs, but also the tribes which led the van of the great southern migration, of which they themselves formed a part.

We have already pointed out the superiority of the great conical-topped huts of the Bahurutsi and Bangwaketse, with their enclosed courtyards and their vast com jars. The Bakuena even excelled them in the ornamentation of their dwellings, their various patterns for wall paintings both for inside and outside decoration, their symmetrical horseshoe-shaped doors, their attempts at moulded pilasters, their greater taste for agricultural pursuits, and their more numerous manufactures, especially their superior pottery, their various wooden vessels and elaborately carved spoons, their copper castings and unsurpassed smith's work, together with their more advanced musical instruments, such as the drum and marimbo.

The Kaffirs proper had no musical instruments of their own ; instead of drums, they beat upon their shields, and the 'Gora which was sometimes used by them was adopted from the Bushmen.

As an evidence that the Bakuena at one time extended towards the east coast, it was stated that beyond them was a tribe which they called Magalatzina, from whom they and other tribes obtained articles of clothing and beads of European manufacture, that they were of a brown complexion and had long hair, and that they used buffaloes to draw carriages. From this description, the people alluded to would appear to have belonged to one of the Portuguese settlements, and the articles named were such as the Portuguese might have introduced from India.

The Bakuena not only surpassed the surrounding tribes in the extent of land which they brought under cultivation, but in the immense size of the herds of cattle in their possession. It was this which aroused the cupidity of their neighbours, and made them such frequent objects of attack. We have already noticed the repeated onslaughts made upon them by the Bangwaketse and other tribes, when they, in their turn, retaliated by making reprisals, until they became comparatively a warlike people.

Mr. Campbell thought it was not unlikely that in time they might become a scourge to others. That time, however, never arrived, and the advent of formidable hordes of foreign invaders in a short period destroyed for ever the long-continued prosperity of this interesting group of tribes. Hordes of whose existence they had been previously ignorant burst suddenly upon them, completely annihilating many of their numerous clans, and driving the remainder a mingled crowd of wretched panic-stricken fugitives headlong from the country.

Unfortunately, previous to this stage of their history their country was unvisited by missionaries and travellers ; it was then considered the far interior, and few had the hardihood to penetrate beyond such frontier tribes as the Batlapin, while the adventurous spirits who did so, such as Dr. Cowan and Captain Donovan, were never more heard of, having sunk under the combined effects, which their own inexperience aggravated, of hardships and fever ; and thus it is that a few scattered traditions are the only available materials we can obtain to assist us in our investigation.

From the days of Kuena to those of Mocwasele I, nothing is known of the lives of the intervening chiefs, except that they once existed. During the chieftainship of this Mocwasele the Bakuena were rich in cattle, and Dr. Livingstone mentions as one of the evidences of the subsequent desiccation of the country, that beds of streams were pointed out where thousands and thousands of cattle formerly drank, in which in his time the water never flowed. This chief appears to have been a great traveller, and is stated to have been the first who ever told the Bakuena of the existence of white men (Ma-koa).

Of the two following chiefs, Seithlamo and Legwale, nothing has been recorded ; but during the lifetime of Mocwasele II it is said that the two first white men passed through his country, when they turned to travel down the river Limpopo where they and all their party perished.

These were in all probability Donovan and Cowan, who undertook their fatal journey in 1808. It was during the rule of this paramount chief that Makaba made his repeated attacks upon the Bakuena clans, killing, as we have seen, one of their chiefs ; and that the Barolong Sihunelo, with his combined force of some eight thousand men, attempted to storm the position of one of the southern clans, and met with the severe repulse we have already described.

It was shortly after this event that the Batlokua, led on by their redoubtable chieftainess, began to make their incursions into the country of the Bakuena, which shortly afterwards culminated in the formidable Mantatee invasion, when, aroused by the example of the warrior queen, a number of the more desperate fugitive tribes banded together, carrying with them their wives and children, and commenced a career of havoc and destruction unparalleled in the previous history of the more peaceful tribes of the Bakuena group.

It was against the tribes we are now speaking of that the first burst of their fury was directed. The terror of their name spread far and wide, and as we have seen, by the time the rumours reached the Batlapin, their great leader and her forces were invested with mythical horrors in the excited imaginations of the alarmed inhabitants. For two years they carried on their ravages among the clans of the Bakuena, capturing their cattle, destroying their towns, and slaying the inhabitants, while the power of the invaders continued ever to increase from the constant accession of other fugitive tribes to their ranks.

But in 1823 a still more terrible enemy made his appearance on the eastern border of the Bakone country, and as the Mantatee hordes evacuated the territory on one side in their advance upon the Bangwaketse, where the old warrior Makaba awaited them, the Matabili legions, under the pitiless Moselekatze, entered it on the other, carrying death and destruction with them wherever they went. Broadbent states that in December 1823 some of the first fugitive Bakuena sought refuge among the Barolong, having escaped by flight after they had been attacked by a powerful tribe called the Matabili.

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Most of their people had been destroyed, their cattle taken, and their land left desolate. Having thus commenced, the ruthless Matabili continued the work of destruction and extermination, until the entire country of the Bakuena, once so flourishing and beautiful, was reduced to an almost uninhabited waste.

Mr. Moffat, who travelled through it shortly after its ruin was completed, has fortunately given a description of what it then presented. Much of the intervening country, two days' waggon-journey from Mosega, was mountainous and wooded to the summits. Evergreens adorned the valleys, in which numerous streams of excellent water flowed by many a winding course to-wards the Indian ocean.N Clumps of trees studded the plains. It was a country once covered with a dense population.

Notes: This country is now a portion of the Transvaal territory.

On the sides of the hills and the flanks of the Kashan mountains (Magaliesberg) were towns in ruins, where thousands once made the country alive, amidst fruitful vales which were then covered with luxuriant grass and inhabited by game. The extirpating invasions of the Mantatees and Matabili had left to beasts of prey the undisputed right of these lovely woodland glens.

The lion, which had revelled in human flesh, as if conscious there was none to oppose, roamed at large, a terror to the traveller. The impoverished thousands of the tribes of the country, who had escaped with their lives the fury of the Matabili, after being scattered by them had neither herd nor kraal, but subsisted on locusts, roots, and the chase.

Great numbers of the fugitives were killed and devoured by the lions, that had learnt to prefer human flesh to any other. Women and children going for water were frequently hunted and pursued by the hyenas, and were never more heard of. As some kind of defence, many built their houses or huts on poles seven or eight feet from the ground, the ascent and descent being by a knotty branch of a tree in front of the house. In the centre of the circle there was always a heap of bones of game, that the unfortunate inhabitants had killed for food.

During the day the families descended to the shade beneath to dress their food, but they re-ascended again as the evening approached, to escape from the ferocious beasts, which otherwise were sure to attack them, and which prowled continually about them in search of stragglers during the dark hours of the night. At one spot Moffat found some seventeen families of fugitive Bakuena who had constructed their huts in the branches of a great tree, the topmost hut being thirty feet from the ground. The people of these arboreal dwellings ascended by a series of notches in the trunk. Platforms were formed of straight sticks among the branches, upon which the huts were constructed and covered with grass.

From the first Matabili outpost to the great-place of the chief Moselekatze, the course travelled was east-south-east, through a more level country beautifully studded with ranges of little hills, many isolated of a conical form, along the bases of which lay the ruins of innumerable towns, some of which were of amazing extent. This was a portion of the once thickly populated Bakuena country. The ruins of many of these towns showed signs of immense labour and perseverance ; stone fences averaging from four to seven feet high were still standing.

Everything was circular, from the inner walls which surrounded each dwelling or family residence to those which encircled a town. In traversing these ruins, Mr. Moffat found the remains of some houses which had escaped the flames of the marauders. These were large, and displayed a far superior style to anything witnessed among the other native tribes of Southern Africa.

The circular walls were generally composed of hard clay, with a small mixture of cowdung, so well plastered and polished, a refined portion of the former being mixed with a kind of ore, that the interior of the house had the appearance of being varnished. The walls and doorways were also neatly ornamented with a kind of architraves and cornices. The pillars supporting the roof were in the form of pilasters, projecting from the walls.

The houses, like all others in the Interior, were round, with conical roofs extending beyond the walls, so as to form a considerable shade, or what might be called a verandah. The raising of the stone fences must have been a work of immense labour, for the materials had all to be brought on men's shoulders.

These now ruined habitations but a short time before teemed with life and revelry. Nothing now remained but dilapidated walls, heaps of stones, and rubbish, mingled with human skulls, which told their own ghastly tale. Occasionally a large stone fold might be seen occupied by the cattle of the Matabili, who had caused the land thus to mourn.

It is certain that many of these Bakuena, either willingly or by compulsion, had joined the victorious hordes of the Mantatees. Mr. Moffat's informant affirmed that he and others were forced to accompany them as captives, and that after their repulse at Lithako he and many hundreds more of the same people were on their return to their own country made prisoners by Moselekatze.

The same man described these Bakuena nations as once being as numerous as the locusts, rich in cattle, and traffickers to a great extent with the distant tribes of the north. This man with his fellow surviving Bakuena had witnessed the desolation of many of the towns around, the sweeping away of the cattle and valuables, the butchering of the inhabitants, and their wide-spread homes being enveloped in smoke and flames.

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Expeditionary impis of Tshaka had made frightful havoc, but all these were nothing compared with the final overthrow of the Bakuena tribes by the arms of Moselekatze. The former inhabitants of these luxuriant hills had, from a long continuance of peace and plenty, become effeminate, while the Matabili under the barbarous reign of the imperious Tshaka, from whose iron grasp many of them had made their escape, like an overwhelming torrent rushed onward from the north, marking their course with blood and carnage.

Moffat, who travelled amongst them shortly after this terrible period, gives the following account of the treatment which these tribes received at the hands of the conquering Matabili. The Matabili, he writes, were not satisfied with simply capturing cattle, nothing less than the entire subjugation or destruction of the vanquished could quench their insatiable thirst for power.

Thus whenever they captured a town, the terrified inhabitants were driven in a mass to the outskirts, when the parents and all the married women were slaughtered on the spot. Such as had dared to be brave in the defence of their town with their wives and their children were reserved for a still more terrible death : dry grass saturated with fat was tied round their naked bodies, and then set on fire.

The youths and girls were loaded as beasts of burden with the spoils of the town, to be marched to the home of the victors. If the town were in an isolated position, the helpless infants were left to perish either with hunger or to be devoured by beasts of prey. On such an event the lions scented the slain, and left their lair. The hyenas and jackals emerged from their lurking places in broad day, and revelled in the carnage, while clouds of vultures were to be seen descending on the living and the dead, and holding a carnival on human flesh.

Should a suspicion arise in the savage breast that there was a chance that the helpless infants might possibly fall into the hands of some of their friends, they prevented this by collecting them into a fold, and after raising over them a pile of brushwood applied the flaming torch to it, when the fold, the town, and all it contained, so lately a scene of mirth, became a heap of ashes.

The following poetical description of one of these scenes of slaughter was given to the missionary Moffat by a native eyewitness, and will well serve to illustrate the mode of attack and onslaught of both the Matabili and Zulu hordes, as well as the terror which accompanied it. Mr. Moffat writes that he ascended a hill, at the base of which he had halted the preceding evening, to spend the day. Happening to turn round to the right as he sat down on the summit, he saw before him a large extent of level ground covered with ruins, when he inquired of a native who had followed him, what had become of the inhabitants ?

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The man had just sat down, but rose, evidently with some feeling, and stretching forth his arm in the direction of the ruins, said : " I, even I, beheld it ! " and then paused as if in deep thought.

"There lived the great captain of multitudes,
He reigned among them like a king,
He was the chief, the chief of the blue-coloured cattle.
They were numerous as the dense mist on the mountain's brow ;
His flocks covered the plain ;
He thought the number of his warriors would awe his enemies,
His people boasted in their javelins,
And laughed at the cowardice of such
As had fled from their towns.
I shall slay them, and hang up their shields on my hill.
Our race is a race of warriors,
Who ever subdued our fathers ?
They were mighty in combat.
We will possess the spoil of ancient times
Have not our dogs eaten the shields of their nobles ?
The vultures shall devour the slain of our enemies.
Thus they sang, and thus they danced,
Till they beheld on yonder heights the approaching foe.
The noise of their song was hushed in night,
And their hearts were filled with dismay.
They saw the clouds ascend from the plains :
It was the smoke of burning towns.
The confusion of the whirlwind
Was in the heart of the great chief of the blue-coloured cattle.
The shout was raised,
" They are friends ! "
But they shouted again,
" They are foes ! "
Till their near approach proclaimed them Matabili.
The men seized their arms.
And rushed out as if to chase the antelope.
The onset was as the voice of lightning.
And their javelins as the shaking of the forest in the autumn-storm.
The Matabili lions raised the shout of death,
And flew upon their victims.
It was the shout of Victory !
Their hissing and hollow groans told their progress among the dead.
A few moments laid hundreds on the ground.
The clash of shields was the signal of triumph !
Our people filed with their cattle to the top of yonder mount.
The Matabili entered the town with the roar of the lion ;
They pillaged and fired the houses,
Speared the mothers, and cast their infants in the flames.
The sun went down ;
The victors emerged from the smoking plain.
And pursued their course.
Surrounding the base of yonder hill.
They slaughtered cattle.
They danced and sang till the dawn of day.
They ascended and killed until their hands were weary of the spear."

Then stooping down to the ground, he took up a little dust in his hand ; blowing it off, and holding out his naked palm, he added : " That is all that remains of the great chief of the blue-coloured cattle ! "

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Mr. Moffat affirms that it is impossible to describe his feelings whilst listening to this descriptive effusion of native eloquence. From other natives he discovered that this " was no fabled song, but merely a compendious sketch of the catastrophe."

The writer has himself seen widespreading ruins, such as those above described, scattered over large areas of country, in his various wanderings through portions of South Africa, to which a similar history of blood is attached, and over which the devastating hordes of the Amazulu, the Amangwane, and Matabili have successively swept.

Captain Harris gives the following account of the miserable condition in which he found these people at the time of his visit in 1836. He states that travelling northward by marches of ten and fifteen miles a day, he passed over rugged tracts strewn with numerous stone walls, once thronged by thousands, but then presenting no vestige of inhabitants. They frequently travelled for days without seeing a solitary human being, occasionally only falling in with the small and starving remnant of some pastoral tribe of Bachoana, that had been plundered by Moselekatze's warriors.

These famished wretches, some of whom had been herding the king's cattle during the absence of Kalipi's commando, hovered around Captain Harris's party, disputing with vultures and hyenas the carcases left by the hunters. Near the junction of the Marico and Limpopo, lat. 24° 10', he again met with a few inhabitants, " the wreck of the Bakone or Bakuena, once the most powerful and prosperous of the Bachuana nations." They were attacked by Moselekatze, when Kama, one of their great chiefs, was slain ; they fled to this part of the country, and were reduced to an extremity of misery and want little short of actual starvation.

The Bakone or Bakuena had retired in Harris's time to the north or rather west of the Limpopo, where a great range of mountains called Mural by the natives divided the tracts occupied by the Bakuena and the Babariri.

The loss of life during the continuance of these Matabili wars was almost as incredible as during those of the Amazulu. It is computed that at least a million of human beings of all ages were sacrificed. Mr. William McLuckie, the first European who attempted to penetrate into the old Bakuena country after Moselekatze had established himself there, and therefore at a time previous to Mr. Moffat's visit, has assured the writer that during that trip for six weeks he never met a single living human being ; nothing was to be seen but the charred remains of numerous towns or kraals, strewn with skulls and other human bones, while for long distances thickly-spread lines of bleaching bones were frequently met with, marking the spots where the wretched fugitives had been overtaken by their savage and pitiless pursuers, to whom mercy was unknown.

Many of the Bakuena fled for refuge to the Kalahari, where numbers perished for want of water. Other remnants of clans were scattered in different directions, and some who retired to the most inaccessible mountains for shelter were reduced to such extremities that they were compelled to resort to cannibalism to sustain their wretched lives.

Previous to these terrible wars many Bushman clans were still to be found sprinkled throughout the Bakuena territory, living by the chase, the plains in every direction being covered with innumerable herds of game, hippopotami abounding in the rivers, while vast troops of elephants roamed through the forest glades.

It was probably this superabundance of game, and the innumerable springs and streamlets which afforded a plentiful supply of water over so large a portion of the country, that rendered the relations between the intruding race and the aborigines of a more amicable character than was found to be the case in parts where there was a greater scarcity of water, and where as a natural consequence the intruding tribes and the Bushmen were frequently forced into hostile collision in their struggle to obtain it, thus laying the foundation for outrages by the stronger, and consequent retaliations by the weaker race, whose territorial rights were in most instances arrogantly ignored whenever the intruders were strong enough to set the aboriginal owners at defiance. But with the Bakuena the case appears to have been different, and no traditions of any serious conflicts between them have been preserved.

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Nor have we any intimation that any number of them were killed by either the Mantatee or Matabili invaders. But this immunity did not exempt the greater portion of them from destruction : they rapidly disappeared, and it was subsequently discovered that whole clans of them were seized and devoured by the cannibals of the mountains.

During the progress of these events Mocwasele II, the paramount chief of the Bakuena, and father of Sechele, having offended his subjects by appropriating the wives of his petty chiefs whenever he had an opportunity during their absence, was at length murdered by them ; and although they spared the lives of his children, they set up a usurper as chief in his stead. Sechele, the rightful heir, was but a boy at the time of this occurrence.

Sebitoane, the emigrant Bapatsa chief, was still migrating with his people from place to place, and as he was himself a descendant of their common ancestor Kuena, the friends of the young dispossessed chief invited him to assist them in reinstating Sechele. Livingstone gives the following account of this coup d'etat.

Sebitoane undertook the task, and surrounded the town of the Bakuena by night. Just as it began to dawn, his herald proclaimed in a loud voice that he had come to revenge the death of Mocwasele. His warriors, who encircled the place, beat loudly on their shields, and the panic was tremendous. There was a rush like that from a theatre on fire, and the warriors of Sebitoane used their assagais on the fugitives with a dexterity which they alone could employ. Sebitoane had given orders that the sons of Mocwasele should be spared.

One of the men, meeting Sechele, put him in ward by giving him such a blow on the head with his club as to render him insensible. The usurper, however, was killed, and the young Sechele was restored to the chieftainship. He subsequently married three of the daughters of his under-chiefs, who on account of their blood relationship had stood by him in his adversity.

After the repulse of the Matabili by the Emigrant Farmers in 1837, and Moselekatze had effected his retreat towards the Zambesi, some of the fragmentary tribes attempted to collect their scattered and diminished clans together, but several years elapsed before they regained sufficient spirit to make war once more upon one another, as in former times. This however took place about 1840, when one of the periodical wars for the possession of cattle burst forth. The old feud between the Barolong and the Bakuena was revived, which ended in the former driving the latter from Lepelole ; and ultimately the relations between the different tribes were completely changed.

After the loss of their immense herds of cattle, and the flight of many of the Bakuena, some of their tribe became expert hunters, and evidently adopted the telle-telle mode of hunting from the Kalahari Bushmen and Bakalakari. To this they gave the name of " hopo," which Livingstone tells us was a trap constructed by them for the capture of the game of the country, among which were great numbers of buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, tsessebes, hartebeests, gnus, pallas, and rhinoceroses. The hopo, he says, consisted of two hedges in the shape of the letter V.

They were made very high and thick near the angle, where they did not however touch, and at the extremity was a pit six or eight feet deep and twelve or fifteen in breadth and length. Trunks of trees were laid along the margin of the pit, and formed an overlapping border, so as to render it almost impossible for any animal to leap out. The whole was decked with soft green rushes.

As the hedges were frequently a mile long and about as much apart at the opening, a tribe that made a circle round the country and gradually closed up was almost sure to sweep before it a large body of game. It was driven up with shouts to the narrowest part of the hopo, where men were secreted who threw their javelins into the affrighted herds. The animals rushed towards the narrow opening, and fell into the pit. It was a frightful scene. The men, wild with excitement, speared the lovely animals with mad delight, and others were borne down with the weight of their dead and dying companions.

Such then is the fragmentary history which we have been able to collect with regard to the great Bakuena nation up to the time of its dispersion by the irruption of the conquering Matabili No people were so mercilessly handled by them as these, one clan after the other was exterminated until their once powerful and numerous tribes were reduced to a few miserable remnants, which from being the possessors of enormous herds of cattle and the greatest cultivators of the land, were compelled to resort to veld kost and cannibalism to support a wretched existence, thrown back again into the more savage mode of life from which their fore fathers had slowly emerged until they had made greater advance towards civilisation and had become more prosperous and numerous than any other South African race.

From this advanced position they were hurled headlong by the rush of Amazulu barbarism into depths of degradation from which they have not yet perfectly extricated themselves.

It will not be necessary to pursue this subject further. The Boers shortly afterwards appropriated and occupied the beautiful country in which they and their fathers had lived for several generations.

They had however set an example to the superior race which finally supplanted them, in their treatment of the aboriginal hunters who were found in possession of the country when their forefathers intruded into it : they neither exterminated nor enslaved them, but, as we have seen, until evil days fell upon both together, the land was considered broad enough and productive enough to allow the two races to live on friendly terms with each other, each pursuing its own particular course of life, and apparently neither the one nor the other injured by the amicable arrangement.

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